TABLE 1.

Demographic Characteristics of Patients in the 36 Articles Reviewed for Successful Dying

Study Authors and Year	Country	Design/ Methods	Measure of a Good Death	Diagnosis/ Population	Age (y)	Gender	Ethnicity/Race	No. of Patients	No. Family Members	No. of HCPs
Payne (1996)38	UK	Qualitative	Elicit (patient and palliative care professionals perception of death)	Advanced cancer	Range: 30–81	50% Male	—	18	—	20
Payne and Hillier (1996)39	UK	Qualitative/quantitative	Narratives from participants used to define a “good death”	Cancer/hospice	Mean: 66	50% Male	—	67	—	—
Leichtentritt (2000)40	Israel	Qualitative	Interviewing discussing good death	General population and medical patients	Range: 60–86	57% Female	Israelis	26	—	—
Steinhauser (2000)41	USA	Quantitative	Survey (rank 44 attributes important at end of life)	Veterans with advanced chronic illness	Mean: 68	78% Male	69% Non-Hispanic, White	340	332	361
Steinhauser (2000)33	USA	Qualitative	Discuss (experiences with deaths of family members, friends, or patients and reflect on what made those deaths good)	Oncology and HIV	Range: 26–77	36% Male	70% Non-Hispanic, White	14	4	57
Pierson (2002)42	USA	Qualitative	Describe a (good death)	AIDS	Mean: 41	91% Male	69% Non-Hispanic, White	35	—	—
Vig (2002)43	USA	Qualitative	Open-ended questions assessing patients views of end of life	Cancer and heart disease	Range: 60–84	87% Female	—	16	—	—
Tong (2003)44	USA	Qualitative	Focus groups to elicit views about death and dying	General population	Range: 14–68	67% Female	53% Non-Hispanic, White 23% Black 14% Hispanic	95	—	—
Vig (2004)45	USA	Qualitative	Open-ended questions assessing patients views of end of life	Cancer and heart disease	Mean: 71	100% Male	—	26	—	—
Goldstein (2006)46	Amsterdam	Qualitative	Open-ended question interview to explore a “good death”	Cancer patients	Range: 39–83	70% Male	Non-Hispanic, White	13	—	—
Hirai (2006)47	Japan	Qualitative	Asked participants for components of a “good death”	Cancer patients	Mean: 62	54% Male	—	13	10	40
Rietjens (2006)48	Netherlands	Qualitative	Respondents were asked to indicate how important they considered 11 attributes of the dying process	General population	Range: 20–93	61% Female	—	1,388	—	—
Lloyd-Williams 2007)49	UK	Qualitative	Semistructured interview based on concepts of independence, health, and well-being, societal support; theme of end of life reported in article	Community-dwelling adults	Range: 80–89	40% Male	85% English	40	—	—
Miyashita (2007)32	Japan	Quantitative	Asked subjects about the relative importance of 57 components of a good death	General population	Range: 49–70	48% Male	—	2,548	513	—
Gott (2008)50	UK	Qualitative	Interviews to explore extent that older adult views are consistent with palliative care “good death” model	Advanced heart failure and poor prognosis	Mean: 77	53% Male		40	—	—
Hughes (2008)8	USA	Qualitative	Definition of good death	Lung cancer	Range: 24–85	50% Male	—	100	—	—
De Jong (2009)51	Nova Scotia	Qualitative	Hear stories of good and bad deaths from those directly involved in palliative care	Palliative patients	—	—	—	3	3	9
Tayeb (2010)30	Saudi Arabia	Qualitative/Quantitative	Principles of good death; agree or disagree with Western principles of good death	Hematology/oncology patients	—	58% Male	Non-Saudi Arabian	26	77	181
Hattori (2012)52	USA	Qualitative	Interviews asking “What does a good death mean to you?	Japanese older adults living in Hawaii	Mean: 78	77% Female	Japanese	18	—	—
Reinke (2013)26	USA	Qualitative/Quantitative	In-person interview and questionnaire to rate what is most important in last 7 days of life	Veterans with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease	Mean: 69	97% Male	291 White	376	—	—