• Senthil P Kumar.
• Department of Physiotherapy, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University, Mangalore, Karnataka, India.
• Indian J Palliat Care. 2012 Jan 1;18(1):59-67.

ContextPalliative care clinical practice depends upon an evidence-based decision-making process which in turn is based upon current research evidence. One of the most important goals in clinical palliative care is to improve patients' quality of life (QoL).AimThis study aimed to perform a quantitative analysis of research publications in palliative care journals for reporting characteristics of articles on QoL.Settings And DesignThis was a systematic review of palliative care journals.Materials And MethodsTwelve palliative care journals were searched for articles with "QoL" in the title of the articles published from 2006 to 2010. The reporting rates of all journals were compared. The selected articles were categorized into assessment and treatment, and subsequently grouped into original and review articles. The original articles were subgrouped into qualitative and quantitative studies, and the review articles were grouped into narrative and systematic reviews. Each subgroup of original article category was further classified according to study designs.Statistical Analysis UsedDescriptive analysis using frequencies and percentiles was done using SPSS for Windows, version 11.5.ResultsThe overall reporting rate among all journals was 1.95% (71/3634), and Indian Journal of Palliative Care (IJPC) had the highest reporting rate of 5.08% (3/59), followed by Palliative Medicine (PM) with 3.71% (20/538), and Palliative and Supportive Care (PSC) with 3.64% (9/247) reporting.ConclusionsThe overall reporting rate for QoL articles in palliative care journals was 1.95% and there were very few randomized clinical trials and systematic reviews found. The study findings indicate further high-quality research to establish an adequate evidence base for QoL.

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