Effects of Advance Care Planning on End-of-Life Decision Making: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to investigate the effects of advance care planning on end-of-life decision-making.

Databases including RISS, KISS, KMbase, KoreaMed, PubMed (MEDLINE), Embase, and CINAHL were searched for studies that examined the effects of advance care planning interventions. The inclusion criteria were original studies in English or Korean; adults ≥18 years of age (population); advance care planning (intervention); completion of advance directives (AD) or advance care planning (ACP) (outcomes); and randomized or non-randomized controlled trials (RCTs and non-RCTs, respectively) (design). Study quality was measured using the checklists of the Joanna Briggs Institute. Meta-analyses were conducted with the Comprehensive Meta-Analysis program.

Nine RCTs and nine non-RCTs were selected for the final analysis. The effect sizes (ES) of the outcome variables in nine RCTs were meta-analyzed, and found to range from 0.142 to 0.496 for the completion of AD and ACP (ES=0.496, 95% CI: 0.157~0.836), discussion of end-of-life care (ES=0.429, 95% CI: -0.027~0.885), quality of communication (ES=0.413, 95% CI: 0.008~0.818), decisional conflict (ES=0.349, 95% CI: -0.059~0.758), and congruence between preferences for care and delivered care (ES=0.142, 95% CI: -0.267~0.552).

ACP interventions had a positive effect on the completion of AD and ACP. To apply AD or ACP in Korea, it is necessary to develop ACP interventions that reflect aspects of Korean culture.