SynthesisBMC palliative care2025
Ethnic inequalities in palliative care prescribing in high income countries - a rapid systematic review.
Synthesis in BMC palliative care, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Addressing the critical palliative care gaps in ethnic minority regions of low- and middle-income countries: a focus group study.BMC medicine · 2026Article
- Pain-Related Disparities in Healthcare Expenditures Among Adults with Cancer in the United States: Evidence from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (2019-2022).Risk management and healthcare policy · 2026Article
- Ethnic disparities in opioid prescribing for cancer pain and associated emergency department visits and hospital admissions in the last three months of life: a retrospective cohort study.British journal of cancer · 2025Article
- Development of the Kunonga framework for operationalising approaches to health inequality and/or inequity evidence syntheses.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Bereavement support guidelines for caregivers in palliative care: a scoping review.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundEffective palliative care involves managing the many symptoms commonly experienced towards the end-of-life. Appropriate prescribing is key to this care, and ethnic inequalities may lead to unequal treatment and poorer outcomes for minority groups. Understanding these disparities is critical to ensuring equitable care. This rapid systematic review investigates ethnic inequalities in palliative care prescribing amongst adults residing in high-income countries.
methodsThe review was registered with the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) under registration number CRD42023476977. We conducted searches across three electronic databases (MEDLINE, Embase, and CINAHL) from January 2000 to November 2023. Screening, data extraction and quality assessment were conducted independently by two reviewers. Quality was assessed using various JBI Critical Appraisal tools. Due to the heterogeneity of included studies, a narrative review was undertaken without a meta-analysis.
resultsOut of 7880 studies identified, 10 studies met the inclusion criteria, all conducted in the United States. Overall, five studies were deemed to be high quality and five were fair quality. The studies highlighted ethnic disparities in palliative care prescribing. Minority populations were less likely to receive pain management medications, particularly opioids, compared to non-Hispanic whites. Increased age, female gender, lower socioeconomic status, and place of residence were also related to differences in prescribing practices.
conclusionsThis rapid systematic review suggests that there are ethnic inequalities in palliative care symptom management prescribing, highlighting a possible gap in care for ethnic minority patients. Research beyond the USA is needed to understand if there are international disparities in palliative care prescribing.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.