The core outcome set for bereavement research in palliative care
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Supporting people bereaved through advanced illness: A systematic review of the evidence and development of a core outcome set for bereavement research in palliative care.
IRAS ID
237913
Contact name
Mirella Longo
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cardiff University
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
CRD42016043530, PROSPERO
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Organisations which provide palliative and end of life care have an important role to play in providing bereavement support to the loved ones of patients, but there are limitations in the available research evidence needed to improve how such support is provided. This project has two stages.
First, we review the research evidence on services which support people who have lost loved ones through terminal illnesses such as cancer. We will consider:
• What kinds of bereavement support have been provided and to whom
• How these studies assess how well a service is working and the tools or ‘outcome measures’ that they use to do this;
• How well these services meet the needs of different groups of people;
• The key features of these services;
The systematic review is carried out in a robust manner, ‘systematic review’ methodology were followed. This means that specialist databases are searched and decisions on which studies to include will be made using agreed criteria. Gaps in the evidence base are identified with recommendations for further research.
The second objective and stage of the project is to develop a common set of assessment measures, known as ‘core outcome sets’. To do this the information on outcome measures that we collect in the review is collated, discussed by a group of experts and used to construct a survey designed to reach consensus on a set of core outcomes. The expert panel and survey participants include policy makers, academics, health and social care professionals, and people with bereavement experiences. The development of a core outcome set will improve the quality and usefulness of future research for informing practice. The resource will also be designed to be useful for assessing and responding to the needs of bereaved individuals in clinical practice.REC name
East of England - Essex Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/EE/0513
Date of REC Opinion
18 Jan 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion