SynthesisPalliative medicine2025
Efficacy of spiritual interventions in palliative care: An umbrella review of systematic reviews.
Synthesis in Palliative medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
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
21 citing papers in PubMed.
- "Life still has meaning for me!" Exploring sources of meaningful life among palliative care patients: a qualitative study.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2026Article
- Impact of a Standardised Screening on the Assessment and Addressing of Spiritual Needs in Inpatient Palliative Care in Germany: A Mixed-Methods Study.Journal of religion and health · 2026Article
- Mindfulness as the missing link in spiritual care: Reframing palliative care practice through presence.Palliative & supportive care · 2026Article
- Predictive effect of symptom burden and spiritual well-being on patient empowerment in palliative care patients: a cross-sectional study.BMC palliative care · 2026Article
- Exploring the spiritual needs of patients receiving palliative care and their caregivers: a qualitative study.BMC palliative care · 2026Article
- A nurse-led palliative care programme for women receiving palliative chemotherapy for breast cancer.BMC palliative care · 2026Article
- Spiritual Care in Surgical Nursing Practice in Türkiye: A Qualitative Study of Nurses' Experiences and Barriers.Journal of religion and health · 2026Article
- Spiritual needs in palliative care inpatients: a four-year analysis of clinical data from a tertiary care center.BMC palliative care · 2026Article
- European Association for Palliative Care White Paper on spiritual care for people with neuro-oncological and neurodegenerative conditions: Integrative framework for practice, education, and research.Palliative & supportive care · 2026Review
- Quality of Dying Among Institutionalised Nursing Home Residents From the Caregivers' Perspective: A Mixed-Methods Study.Journal of advanced nursing · 2026Article
- Use and evaluation of psychological interventions in specialist palliative care settings: results of a national online survey with psychologists and psycho-oncologists.BMC palliative care · 2026Article
- Exploring spirituality in palliative care services: an All-Ireland survey.BMC palliative care · 2026Article
- Spiritual Aspects of Rehabilitation Nutrition: A Position Paper by the Japanese Association of Rehabilitation Nutrition (Secondary Publication).Journal of general and family medicine · 2026Article
- Health-related quality of life in palliative care: determinants identified in a hospital-based observational study.BMC palliative care · 2025Observational
- Article
- Hope at the end of life: Can hope endure when life nears its end?Palliative & supportive care · 2025Article
- Legacy Building from the Perspective of Palliative Care Professionals in Portugal: A Qualitative Thematic Analysis.Nursing reports (Pavia, Italy) · 2025Article
- Spiritual Care Competence in Palliative Care: A Concept Analysis.Journal of religion and health · 2025Article
- Effect of dignity therapy on meaning in life scores of cancer patients in palliative care.Palliative & supportive care · 2025Article
- Use of dignity therapy in palliative care: a comprehensive scoping review.BMC palliative care · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSpiritual care is increasingly recognised as an essential component of care in palliative settings. Given this growing body of literature on spiritual interventions, there is a need to systematically evaluate and synthesis findings from previous systematic reviews.
aimTo systematically synthesise the available evidence from systematic reviews concerning (a) the efficacy of spiritual care interventions and (b) the extent and nature of spiritual care interventions used in specialist palliative care settings.
methodsAn umbrella review of systematic reviews was conducted in accordance with PROSPERO (CRD42024455147) and followed the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for umbrella reviews. DATA SOURCES: Electronic databases (Ovid Medline, Embase, APA PsycINFO, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, CINAHL and Web of Science) and references of accepted systematic reviews were searched for systematic reviews from inception to 2024. The AMSTAR-2 criteria was used to assess risk of bias within systematic reviews.
resultsA toal of 27 reviews met the eligibility criteria and reported the effects of 14 different spiritual care interventions across 431 studies including 55,759 participants. Findings show that spiritual care interventions especially dignity therapy and life-review may be effective for improving outcomes including spiritual wellbeing, emotional symptoms, quality-of-life and physical symptoms in people receiving specialist palliative care. Under half of included reviews report follow-up data where only emotional symptoms and quality-of-life are reported at more than one time-point.
conclusionOverall, spiritual care interventions have positive effects on spiritual wellbeing, quality of life and mood, compared to control conditions. Increased methodological rigour is needed to capture effect and duration of effect with spiritual care interventions at different phases of palliative care.
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