Uncovering Methods and Outcomes of Palliative Care for Geriatric Patients: A Scoping Review

BACKGROUND: Palliative care is an integral part of care for patients with life-limited diseases that focuses on reducing symptoms and maintaining and increasing the quality of life (QoL) for patients and their families. Geriatric patients were more likely to receive palliative care and had unique needs compared to the general population. To improve the quality of palliative care, especially for geriatric patients, it is necessary to have a better understanding of methods and outcomes for geriatric patients when delivering palliative care. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to identify the methods and outcomes of palliative care in geriatric patients across the globe. METHODS: This scoping review was guided by Arksey and ‘O Malley’s framework and utilized the Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist for providing transparent reporting to the readers. EBSCO, PubMed, and Scopus databases were used to search the relevant articles with a publication range of 2013–2023. Thematic analysis was used to identify and summarize palliative care methods and outcomes for geriatric patients in this review. RESULTS: Twenty-one studies were included in this review, and it was found that there were many types of methods for delivering palliative care to geriatric patients. In both acute care settings and community settings, a wide range of methods for delivering palliative care to geriatric patients were identified. Outcomes of palliative care in geriatric patients in hospitals and community settings, were reduced pain, depressive symptoms and anxiety, edema, constipation, odds of in-hospital death, and increased spiritual well-being, QoL and well-being, being comfortable, patient readiness, place of death, sleep quality, and quality of dying. CONCLUSION: Geriatric patients had a variety of methods and outcomes in palliative care. This study suggests that outcomes should be evaluated continuously after implementing methods for delivering palliative care to geriatric patients.