• Palliative medicine · Dec 2017

    Review Meta Analysis

    The effects of life review interventions on spiritual well-being, psychological distress, and quality of life in patients with terminal or advanced cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

    • Chong-Wen Wang, Amy Ym Chow, and Cecilia Lw Chan.
    • 1 Centre on Behavioral Health, Faculty of Social Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
    • Palliat Med. 2017 Dec 1; 31 (10): 883-894.

    BackgroundLife review interventions have been used to alleviate psycho-spiritual distress in people near the end of life. However, their effectiveness remains inconclusive.AimTo evaluate the effects of therapeutic life review on spiritual well-being, psychological distress, and quality of life in patients with terminal or advanced cancer.DesignA systematic review according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses methodology.Data SourcesFive databases were searched from their respective inception through February 2017 for relevant randomized controlled trials. The effects of therapeutic life review were pooled across the trials. Standardized mean differences were calculated for the pooled effects. Heterogeneity was assessed using the I2 test. Study quality was assessed using the Cochrane criteria.ResultsEight randomized controlled trials met the inclusion criteria. The pooled results suggested a desirable effect of therapeutic life review on the meaning of life domain of spiritual well-being (standardized mean difference = 0.33; 95% confidence interval, 0.12 to 0.53), general distress (standardized mean difference = -0.32; 95% confidence interval, -0.55 to -0.09), and overall quality of life (standardized mean difference = 0.35; 95% confidence interval, 0.15 to 0.56) when compared to usual care only. Of the three outcomes examined, only the pooled effect on overall quality of life remained statistically significant at follow-ups up to 3 months after the intervention (standardized mean difference = 0.82; 95% confidence interval, 0.47 to 1.18).ConclusionsTherapeutic life review is potentially beneficial for people near the end of life. However, the results should be interpreted with caution due to the limited number of randomized controlled trials and associated methodological weaknesses. Further rigorously designed randomized controlled trials are warranted.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…