SynthesisThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2011
End-of-life care conversations with heart failure patients: a systematic literature review and narrative synthesis.
Synthesis in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03227393 (The Effect of Yoga on Cardiac Sympathetic Innervation Evaluated by I-123 mIBG), which is not on this map. Cited by 81 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
The Effect of Yoga on Cardiac Sympathetic Innervation Evaluated by I-123 mIBG
Who cites it
81 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Improving communication of prognostic uncertainty in advanced illness: a realist review.BMJ open · 2026Pooled it
- Integrating palliative care and heart failure: a systematic realist synthesis (PalliatHeartSynthesis).Open heart · 2023Pooled it
- Survival of patients with chronic heart failure in the community: a systematic review and meta-analysis.European journal of heart failure · 2019Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Do the elderly have a voice? Advance care planning discussions with frail and older individuals: a systematic literature review and narrative synthesis.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2013Pooled it
- Trial
- What Should We Aim for when Addressing Uncertainty from Serious Illness? A Stakeholder Focus Group Study.Journal of general internal medicine · 2026Article
- Advance care planning uptake in the severely frail.BMC palliative care · 2026Observational
- Integrating a Palliative Approach into Cardiogeriatric Decision-Making for Frail Older Adults with Heart Failure.Geriatrics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Factors impacting the delivery of contextualized care in serious illness: a focus group study with healthcare professionals.BMC medicine · 2026Article
- Article
- Assessment of end-of-life care needs among patients with incurable diseases in Bangladesh: A multicenter study.Palliative & supportive care · 2025Article
- Prognostic communication in heart failure: protocol for a systematic qualitative synthesis of experiences, attitudes and practices.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Healthcare Professionals' Perspective on Supporting Patients and Family Caregivers in End-Of-Life Care Decision-Making: A Qualitative Study in Specialist Palliative Care.The American journal of hospice & palliative care · 2025Article
- Factors Affecting Quality of Life of Caregivers of Patients with Heart Failure.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Article
- Review
- Ethnographic closeness: methodological reflections on the interplay of engagement and detachment in immersive ethnographic research.The journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute · 2023Article
- Barriers and Enablers for Implementation of an Artificial Intelligence-Based Decision Support Tool to Reduce the Risk of Readmission of Patients With Heart Failure: Stakeholder Interviews.JMIR formative research · 2023Article
- Relationships of Whole-Heart Myocardial Mechanics and Cardiac Morphometrics by Transthoracic Echocardiography with Main Prognostic Factors of Heart Failure in Non-Ischemic Dilated Cardiomyopathy.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Article
21 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundCurrent models of end-of-life care (EOLC) have been largely developed for cancer and may not meet the needs of heart failure patients.
aimTo review the literature concerning conversations about EOLC between patients with heart failure and healthcare professionals, with respect to the prevalence of conversations; patients' and practitioners' preferences for their timing and content; and the facilitators and blockers to conversations. DESIGN OF STUDY: Systematic literature review and narrative synthesis.
methodSearches of Medline, PsycINFO and CINAHL databases from January 1987 to April 2010 were conducted, with citation and journal hand searches. Studies of adult patients with heart failure and/or their health professionals concerning discussions of EOLC were included: discussion and opinion pieces were excluded. Extracted data were analysed using NVivo, with a narrative synthesis of emergent themes.
resultsConversations focus largely on disease management; EOLC is rarely discussed. Some patients would welcome such conversations, but many do not realise the seriousness of their condition or do not wish to discuss end-of-life issues. Clinicians are unsure how to discuss the uncertain prognosis and risk of sudden death; fearing causing premature alarm and destroying hope, they wait for cues from patients before raising EOLC issues. Consequently, the conversations rarely take place.
conclusionPrognostic uncertainty and high risk of sudden death lead to EOLC conversations being commonly avoided. The implications for policy and practice are discussed: such conversations can be supportive if expressed as 'hoping for the best but preparing for the worst'.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.