Table 7 Categories of suffering for patients who did or did not experience overall unbearable suffering (results from coding of open questions on why aspects of the SOS-V were unbearable)
|  | Overall unbearable suffering (n = 16) | Overall bearable suffering (n = 41) |  | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Categories of suffering | Category present in patients % (n) | Mean number in which category is present per patient Mean (stdev) | Category present in patients % (n) | Mean number in which category is present per patient Mean (stdev) | p-value of t-test for means |
Physical suffering | 100 (16) | 4.0 (2.1) | 61 (25) | 2.1 (2.4) | 0.008 |
Loss of meaning | 88 (14) | 3.6 (3.3) | 63 (26) | 2.0 (2.1) | 0.027 |
Loss of autonomy | 88 (14) | 3.1 (2.2) | 44 (18) | 2.2 (1.6) | 0.003 |
Loss of dignity | 56 (9) | 1.1 (1.5) | 32 (13) | 0,5 (0.9) | 0.064 |
Experience to be a burden to others | 56 (9) | 0.7 (0.7) | 17 (7) | 0.2 (0.5) | 0.025 |
Loss of sexual role | 6 (1) | 0.1 (0.3) | 2 (1) | 0.02 (0.2) | 0.491 |
Fear of future suffering | 44 (7) | 0.8 (0.9) | 5 (2) | 0.04 (0.2) | 0.009 |
Anxiety | 31 (5) | 0.6 (1.2) | 7 (3) | 0.1 (1.3) | 0.089 |
Death anxiety | 6 (1) | 0.1 (0.5) | 0 (0) | 0.0 (0.0 | 0.333 |
Depressive thoughts | 19 (3) | 0.2 (0.4) | 2 (1) | 0.02 (0.2) | 0.134 |
Worrying | 44 (7) | 0.5 (0.6) | 5 (2) | 0.1 (0.3) | 0.020 |
Feeling tensed | 13 (2) | 0.1 (0.3) | 5 (2) | 0.05 (0.2) | 0.417 |
Hopelessness | 19 (3) | 0.2 (0.4) | 2 (1) | 0.02 (0.2) | 0.134 |
Pointlessness | 13 (2) | 0.4 (1.1) | 2 (1) | 0.4 (0.5) | 0.299 |
Emotional symptoms | 75 (12) | 2.1 (2.6) | 20 (8) | 0.3 (0.8) | 0.014 |