• Gary Witham, Natalie G Regier, Abshire SaylorMarthaMJohns Hopkins School of Nursing, Baltimore, MD, USA.Johns Hopkins Center for Equity in Aging, Baltimore, MD, USA., Sarah Allgood, Samantha Curriero, Tamryn F Gray, Elifnur Gunes, Bryan R Hansen, Reena Levy, Katie E Nelson, Claire M Petchler, Rebecca Singer Cohen, and Rebecca Wright.
• Manchester Metropolitan University School of Nursing and Public Health, Manchester, UK.
• Palliat Med. 2024 Nov 15: 26921632412913522692163241291352.

BackgroundThough randomized controlled trials of non-pharmacological palliative care interventions have shown positive outcomes, findings are often generalized with limited consideration for the impact of the influence of race, ethnicity, nationality, or religion on said outcomes.AimTo identify trends and gaps in global reporting of racial, ethnic, nationality, and religious demographics in non-pharmacological palliative care randomized controlled trials.DesignWe conducted a scoping review guided by the Joanna Briggs methodology.Data SourcesGlobal randomized controlled trials published in English, between 1999 and 2021 extracted from databases: Cochrane, PubMed, and Scopus. Inclusion criteria were non-pharmacological palliative care interventions for people with serious conditions reporting on one or more of the demographics of race, ethnicity, nationality, or religion.ResultsOur review included 131 (44%) articles published from 19 countries, predominantly the USA (n = 84, 64%). Most studies focused on cancer (n = 71, 54%) in inpatient settings (n = 85, 64%). Race was the most commonly reported demographic (n = 93, 70%), followed by ethnicity (n = 54, 41%), religion (n = 46, 35%), nationality (n = 20, 15%). Within racial reporting, 86 (92%) indicating a majority White/Caucasian sample. Only 14 (10%) articles provided context connecting participant demographics to intervention outcomes. Demographic data was discussed only as a limitation to generalizability in 18 cases (41%).ConclusionsImproving greater transparency in study reporting of social and historical context about population demographics, including specific demographic data collected, may better identify unmet palliative needs, facilitate cross-cultural interpretation, and improve adaptation and implementation of non-pharmacological palliative care interventions.

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