Practical Geriatrics ›› 2022, Vol. 36 ›› Issue (6): 606-611.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1003-9198.2022.06.015

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Effects of palliative care implementation on elderly patients with dementia: a systematic review and meta-analysis

ZHANG Nan, ZUO Wen-hang, WU Jin-hui   

  1. National Clinical Research Center for Geriatrics, Department of Gerontology and Geriatrics, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China
  • Received:2022-03-01 Online:2022-06-20 Published:2022-06-30

Abstract: Objective To systematically assess the effects of palliative care on quality of life, symptoms, and care preferences discussion in the elderly patients with dementia. Methods Embase, MEDLINE, CENTRAL, APA PsycInfo, CINAHL, Web of Science Core Collection, ClinicalTrials.gov Database, CBM, CNKI, VIP and Wanfang Data were searched to screen the randomized controlled trials of palliative medical intervention in the patients with dementia. The included studies were evaluated for risk of bias, and meta-analysis was performed using Stata 17.0 BE software. Results Finally, 13 studies were enrolled, including 3394 cases of dementia (mean age: 82.0 years; 65.8% being female). Meta-analysis showed that, compared with usual care,palliative care was significantly related to the discussion of care preferences(5 trials, n=996; RR=2.11,95%CI: 1.14-3.90;I2=87.3%), but not related to the improvement of quality of life [4 trials, n=762; SMD=-0.04 (95%CI:-0.43-0.35]; I2=79.7%] and symptoms (6 trials,n=1047; SMD=0.26,95%CI:-0.06-0.58; I2=80.8%). Conclusions Compared with usual care, palliative care is associated with the discussion of care preferences, and there is insufficient evidence of correlation with quality of life or symptoms.

Key words: dementia, palliative care, quality of life, symptom burden, care preference

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