SynthesisJournal of pain and symptom management2022
Interventions to Improve Prognostic Understanding in Advanced Stages of Life-Limiting Illness: A Systematic Review.
Synthesis in Journal of pain and symptom management, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 26 citations in OpenAlex.
- Prognostic understanding interventions in patients with advanced cancer: a systematic review.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Pooled it
- Perceptions of prognosis and end-of-life care outcomes in patients with advanced lung and gastrointestinal cancer.Palliative medicine · 2023Trial
- Survival in children and adolescents with life-limiting conditions-a nationwide cohort study.European journal of epidemiology · 2026Article
- Medical information and decision-making in palliative cancer: a qualitative study of patients' perceptions, needs, and preferences regarding physician communication.BMC palliative care · 2026Article
- Determining patient-oncologist cancer treatment intent concordance using systematic screening in a supportive care center.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2026Article
- Non-pharmacological symptom self-management in non-malignant chronic disease: A scoping review.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2025Article
- Prognostic beliefs in patients with cancer receiving outpatient palliative care.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2025Article
- Correlates of Perceived Illness Severity and Terminality in Advanced Lung and Prostate Cancer.Journal of pain and symptom management · 2025Article
- Patient and Provider Attitudes and Preferences Regarding Early Palliative Care Delivery for Patients with Advanced Gastrointestinal Cancers: A Prospective Survey.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2024Article
- Serious Illness Communication in Cirrhosis Care: Tools to Improve Illness Understanding, Prognostic Understanding, and Care Planning.Gastro hep advances · 2024Article
- Racial and Ethnic Differences in Hospice Use Among Medicaid-Only and Dual-Eligible Decedents.JAMA health forum · 2023Article
- The Profound Implications of the Meaning of Health for Health Care and Health Equity.The Milbank quarterly · 2023Article
- Understanding Prognosis: Discrepancy in Prognosis Estimates Between Patients With Cirrhosis and their Hepatologists.Clinical gastroenterology and hepatology : the official clinical practice journal of the American Gastroenterological Association · 2023Article
- Advances in palliative care in neuro-oncology come in many forms.Neuro-oncology · 2023Article
- Prognostic Awareness and Discussions of Incurability in Patients with Pretreated Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer and Caregivers: A Prospective Cohort Study.The oncologist · 2022Observational
- Anticancer Treatment Goals and Prognostic Misperceptions among Advanced Cancer Outpatients.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
contextAmong patients with advanced life-limiting illness, an inaccurate understanding of prognosis is common and associated with negative outcomes. Recent years have seen an emergence of new interventions tested for their potential to improve prognostic understanding. However, this literature has yet to be synthesized.
objectivesTo identify and characterize tested interventions, summarize intervention findings, and outline directions for future research.
methodsSystematic searches were conducted in five databases - PubMed/MEDLINE (NLM), EMBASE (Elsevier), CINAHL (EBSCO), PsycINFO (OVID), and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (Wiley) - to identify interventions evaluated within a randomized controlled design for their impact on prognostic understanding.
resultsOf the 2354 initial articles, 12 were selected for final inclusion, representing nine unique interventions. Intervention types included decision aids accompanying medical consults, palliative care consultations, communication training for patients and physicians, and targeted discussions regarding prognosis and treatment decision making. Common components of interventions included provision of prognostic information, assistance with end-of-life care planning, and provision of decisional and emotional support during discussions. Most interventions were associated with some indication of improvement in prognostic understanding. However, even after intervention, inaccurate prognostic understanding was common, with 31-95 percent of patients in intervention groups exhibiting inaccurate perceptions of their prognosis.
conclusionPrognostic understanding interventions hold the potential to improve patient understanding and thus informed decision making, but limitations exist. Future research should examine why many patients receiving intervention may continue to maintain inaccurate perceptions, and identify which intervention components can best enhance informed, value-consistent 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.