Evidence-Based Palliative Care 13 Years On: Has anything changed?. Issue 3 (September 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kindl, Korana; Good, Phillip
• Is Part Of: Journal of palliative care. Volume 31:Issue 3(2015)
• Page Start: 133
• Page End: 140
• Publication Date: 2015-09
• Subjects: Terminal care -- Periodicals; 362.17505
• DOI: 10.1177/082585971503100302
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0825-8597

Abstract

There is a paucity of data on whether interventions in individual palliative care units are evidence-based. Thirteen years ago an initial study evaluated the evidence base of interventions in palliative care. Using similar methodology in the present study, we evaluated the evidence for interventions performed in an inpatient palliative care setting, looking at level of evidence as well as quality and outcome of evidence. More than half of all the interventions (47 interventions, 59 percent) we looked at in a Brisbane, Australia, inpatient palliative care setting were based on a high level of evidence in the form of systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials (level I or level II). There were only a few interventions (10 percent) for which no evidence could be retrieved. Our results show that the evidence base for interventions in palliative care continues to evolve, but that there are still areas for which further high-quality studies are needed.