Life-sustaining treatment limitation decisions were made for 18% of a COVID-19 patient cohort. Hereof, more than a third of the decisions had been made before hospital admission. Many records lacked information on patient involvement in the decisions.

A retrospective observational descriptive study was conducted in three Danish regional hospitals, looking at all patients ≥ 18 years of age admitted in 2020 with COVID-19 as the primary diagnosis.

A total of 476 patients were included.

For 7% (33/476), a decision about limitation of life-sustaining treatment had been made prior to hospital admission.

At the time of admission, one or more limitations of life-sustaining treatment were registered for 16% (75/476) of patients.

During the admission, limitation decisions were made for an additional 11 patients, totaling 18% (86/476).

For 40% (34/86), the decisions were either made by or discussed with the patient.

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