ArticleBMJ open2025
Prognostic awareness in family caregivers of patients with terminal illness: a scoping review.
Article in BMJ open, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 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.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Quality of life dynamics in the gastric cancer dyad: an actor-partner interdependence model analysis guiding the development of a family-centered nursing framework.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Shifting sands: How parents engage with the idea of their child's death.Palliative & supportive care · 2026Article
- Case Report: Family-mediated prognostic non-disclosure and psychological deterioration in terminal cancer.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Anticipatory Grief Among Family Caregivers of Terminally Ill Cancer Patients: A Multicenter Study Among Bangladeshi Population.Palliative medicine reportsArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo map and synthesise the existing literature on the prognostic awareness of family caregivers of terminally ill patients with advanced disease.
designScoping review following the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews guidelines. DATA SOURCES: A comprehensive search was conducted in six nursing and healthcare databases: CINAHL, Cochrane, ILISI, PubMed, PsycINFO and Scopus. The literature search was conducted in August 2024 without date limitations. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: Research studies of any design focusing on prognostic awareness in family caregivers of patients with terminal illness were included. Studies were included if they were published in English, Spanish or Italian. Reviews, editorials and grey literature were excluded. DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: Two reviewers independently screened and selected studies, extracted data and charted results. A descriptive synthesis was performed to summarise study characteristics, conceptual definitions of PA, measurement approaches and main findings.
results18 studies were included, highlighting four main themes and related subthemes. (1) Factors influencing caregivers' prognostic awareness: these include caregiver-specific factors (eg, sociodemographic characteristics, relationship with the patient, emotional burden), caregiving context (eg, patient's trigger events, healthcare settings) and communication dynamics (eg, delays, insufficient communication, tailored approaches). (2) Prognostic concordance: discordance among patients, caregivers and healthcare providers is common and linked to miscommunication, emotional unpreparedness and differing treatment goals. (3) Outcomes of prognostic awareness: accurate awareness facilitates palliative care decisions and improves patient quality of life but may increase caregiver stress and depressive symptoms when emotional preparedness is lacking. (4) Evolution of prognostic awareness: awareness evolves with illness progression but fluctuates based on emotional and cognitive adaptation.
conclusionsCaregivers' prognostic awareness is critical to end-of-life care planning, facilitating transitions to palliative care and reducing unnecessary aggressive treatments. However, it also poses psychological challenges for caregivers, highlighting the need for tailored communication strategies and emotional support.
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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.