SynthesisJAMA internal medicine2014
Stability of end-of-life preferences: a systematic review of the evidence.
Synthesis in JAMA internal medicine, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04239209 (The Effect of Intensivist Communication on Prognosis Interpretation by Family Members of Patients at High Risk for Intensive Care Unit Admission), which is not on this map. Cited by 101 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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 Intensivist Communication on Prognosis Interpretation by Family Members of Patients at High Risk for Intensive Care Unit Admission: A Randomized Trial
Who cites it
101 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Longing for continuity: A systematic review and thematic synthesis of qualitative research on the experience of older people living with chronic illness towards the end of life.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2026Pooled it
- Instability in End-of-Life Goals and Preferences of Patients Who Are Seriously Ill: A Systematic Review.JAMA network open · 2025Pooled it
- Factors related to advance directives completion among cancer patients: a systematic review.BMC palliative care · 2024Pooled it
- Influences on Care Preferences of Older People with Advanced Illness: A Systematic Review and Thematic Synthesis.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2018Pooled it
- Practice Variability in the SHARING Choices Pragmatic Trial of Primary Care Advance Care Planning.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2026Trial
- Pandemic Effects on Stability of End-of-Life Preferences and Patient-Surrogate Dyad Congruence.Journal of pain and symptom management · 2024Trial
- Seriously Ill Patients' Prioritized Goals and Their Clinicians' Perceptions of Those Goals.Journal of pain and symptom management · 2022Trial
- Changes over Time in Patient Stated Values and Treatment Preferences Regarding Aggressive Therapies: Insights from the DECIDE-LVAD Trial.Medical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making · 2022Trial
- Patients' preferred place of death: patients are willing to consider their preferences, but someone has to ask them.Age and ageing · 2021Trial
- Patient-Reported Receipt of Goal-Concordant Care Among Seriously Ill Outpatients-Prevalence and Associated Factors.Journal of pain and symptom management · 2020Trial
- A randomized clinical trial of adolescents with HIV/AIDS: pediatric advance care planning.AIDS care · 2017Trial
- From Patient Voice to Organizational Adaptability: A Critical Narrative Review and Conceptual Model for Personalized Care.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Large Language Models (LLMs) vs Manual Chart Review for Assessing Goal-Concordant Care: An Exploratory Study.The American journal of hospice & palliative care · 2026Article
- Early decision effect of withholding and/or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment on emergency department patients' short- and long-term outcomes: a retrospective analysis.BMC emergency medicine · 2026Observational
- Artificial intelligence and medical futility.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2026Review
- Preferences for advance care planning in patients with acute coronary syndrome across precursor and symptomatic heart failure stages.Heart and vessels · 2026Article
- The ACP-ASC model: A comprehensive behaviour change model for advance care planning based on the Stages of Change model.Palliative medicine · 2026Article
- Advanced cancer patients' knowledge and opinions regarding the French law on advance directives: a multicenter cross-sectional study.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2026Article
- Article
- Is home always the best place to live? Preferences for place of residence and long-term care among the community-dwelling oldest old in Finland.European journal of public health · 2025Article
41 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
importancePolicies and practices that promote advance care planning and advance directive completion implicitly assume that patients' choices for end-of-life (EOL) care are stable over time, even with changes in health status.
objectiveTo systematically evaluate the evidence on the stability of EOL preferences over time and with changes in health status. EVIDENCE REVIEW: We searched for longitudinal studies of patients' preferences for EOL care in PubMed, EMBASE, and using citation review. Studies restricted to preferences regarding the place of care at the EOL were excluded.
findingsA total of 296 articles were assessed for eligibility, and 59 met inclusion criteria. Twenty-four articles had sufficient data to extract or calculate the percentage of individuals with stable preferences or the percentage of total preferences that were stable over time. In 17 studies (71%) more than 70% of patients' preferences for EOL care were stable over time. Preference stability was generally greater among inpatients and seriously ill outpatients than among older adults without serious illnesses (P < .002). Patients with higher education and who had engaged in advance care planning had greater preference stability, and preferences to forgo therapies were generally more stable than preferences to receive therapies. Among 9 of the 24 studies (38%) assessing changes in health status, no consistent relationship with preference changes was identified. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Considerable variability among studies in the methods of preference assessment, the time between assessments, and the definitions of stability preclude meta-analytic estimates of the stability of patients' preferences and the factors influencing these preferences. Although more seriously ill patients and those who engage in advance care planning most commonly have stable preferences for future treatments, further research in real-world settings is needed to confirm the utility of advance care plans for future decision making.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.