. 2021 Aug 2;36(10):3136–3147. doi: 10.1007/s11606-021-06973-5

Table 1.

Descriptive Table Outlining Study Characteristics and Proportion Willing to Discuss Life Expectancy

Author, country, year	Disease type	Mean/median age	Sample size	Proportion wanting to discuss life expectancy	Specific question about life expectancy
Patients with cancer
Arbabi et al, Iran, 2014⁴³	Mixed types of cancer	43 years	200	61% [agree]	Patients’ life expectancy should be discussed
Butow et al, Australia, 1996⁴⁵	Breast and melanoma cancer	48 years^a	144	57% [indicated wanting to discuss]	Patient preferences for discussing life expectancy
Clayton et al, Australia, 2005²⁶	Advanced mixed types of cancer	68 years	19	Most [most said it was every important to be informed that their illness would limit their lifespan but not all wanted to be told detailed information about their life expectancy]	Should palliative care doctors offer to discuss prognosis with you at certain times?
Deschepper et al, Belgium, 2008³¹	Advanced mixed types of cancer	N/R	17	Minority [a minority of the interviewed patients wanted all the information available about their medical situation and prognosis]	Patient preferences regarding when and how they wanted to be informed.
Fujimori et al, Japan, 2007⁴⁴	Mixed types of cancer	62 years	529	15% [strongly prefer] 36% [prefer]	Telling about your life expectancy
Hagerty et al, Australia, 2004¹¹	Advanced metastatic cancer	63 years	126^b	81%^b [yes]	Patients indication on their preferences for prognostic information about the average length of time they would be likely to live
Hoesseini et al, The Netherlands, 2020⁵⁵	Head and neck cancer	65 years	21	62% [very important] 38% [somewhat important]	To what extent do you think it is important to receive information about your life expectancy?
Oskay-Özcelik et al, Germany , 2018³⁵	Ovarian cancer	58 years	1830	65% [wished for as precise as possible] 22% [wished for an approximate estimation]	Patient information needs concerning life expectancy
Mackenzie et al, Japan, 2018⁴⁹	Mixed types of cancer	64 years	146^c	58%^c [wanted to discuss life expectancy]	Patient preference for discussing life expectancy with radiation oncologist
Pardon et al, Belgium, 2009²⁰ and Pardon et al, Belgium 2011^21d	Advanced lung cancer	64 years	128^d	65%^d [totally agree] 15%^d [agree] 9%^d [rather agree]	I want to be informed about my life expectancy with the disease
Saracino et al, United States of America, 2021⁵²	Advanced mixed types of cancer	59 years	206	43% [extremely] 29% [very] 13% [somewhat important] 9% [a little important]	Participants stated importance to know about their cancer prognosis
Schofield et al, Australia, 2001³⁹	Melanoma cancer	58 years	131	61% [yes]	Would you want information about how cancer would affect life expectancy?
Shen et al, United States of America, 2018⁴⁰	Advanced mixed types of cancer	56 years	221	21% [yes]	If the doctor knew, would you want to know how long you have left to live?
Sherman et al, United States of America, 2018³²	Advanced mixed types of cancer	64 years	13	Varied [Patients varied widely in their perceptions. Some expressed a clear interest in detailed prognostic information. Others were more ambivalent]	Patients were asked about their preferences on information during prognosis
Tang et al, Taiwan, 2004⁵⁴	Mixed types of cancer	51 years	364	30% [yes]	Would you want information about expected length of survival?
Uchida et al, Japan, 2019³⁸	Mixed types of cancer	63 years	259^e	45%^e [yes]	Would you like information from your doctor about your life expectancy?
Vehling et al, Germany, 2015⁴⁸	Advanced mixed types of cancer	67 years	55	52% [indicating preference to discuss]	Patient preferences for discussing expected survival with a physician
Walczak et al, Australia, 2015¹⁰	Advanced mixed types of cancer	63 years	31	19% [clear interest]	Patient preferences indicating whether or not they wished to discuss life expectancy during consultations
Waller et al, Australia, 2019^24f	Mixed types of cancer	65 years	185^f,g	66%^f,g [yes]	Would you want to discuss life expectancy with your doctor?
Waller et al, Australia, 2021^25f	Mixed types of cancer	65 years	302^f	59%^f [preferred their doctor tell them their life expectancy as soon as they had the information]	Patients were asked about their preferred initiation source
Wright et al, United states of America, 2010³⁴	Advanced mixed types of cancer	N/R	301	73% [yes]	If your physician knew how long you had left to live, would you want him or her to tell you?
Zafar et al, Pakistan, 2016⁵⁰	Mixed types of cancer	49 years	520^h	60%^h [agreed]	I want my physician/nurse or another healthcare provider to discuss with me in detail how long people who have a disease like mine can expect to live. I want to know the average, the best case scenario, and the worst case scenario
Urological and surgical outpatients
Clarke et al, United Kingdom, 2008³⁷	Urological and surgical outpatients	69 years	120	58% [yes]	Would you want to know your predicted life expectancy if it were available in clinical practice?
Patients with heart disease
Deng et al, United States of America, 2017³⁶	Adult congenital heart disease	33 years	152	61% [yes]	Want information about life expectancy
O’Donnell et al, United States of America, 2018⁵¹	Advanced heart failure	72 years	50	66% [indicated wish to be informed]	Patient preference for being informed of a physician-anticipated life expectancy less than 1 year
Narayan et al, United States of America, 2017⁵⁸	Heart failure	57 years	24	71% [acceptors]	Patient preferences for receiving survival estimates
Tobler et al, Switzerland, 2012⁴¹	Adult congenital heart disease	35 years	200	35% [endorsed wanting to know]	Patients endorsed wanting to know when they would die if someone could tell them that
First time nephrology outpatients
Fine et al, Canada, 2005⁴²	Nephrology outpatients	64 years	100	51% [absolute need to know] 46% [would like to know]	Patient preferences for information on actual life expectancy on dialysis
Older patients
Ahalt et al, United States of America, 2012⁵⁶	Older adults with late-life disability receiving at home care	78 years	60	65%ⁱ [wanted information if their doctor believed they may have less than 5 years to live] 75%ⁱ [wanted information if their doctor believed they may have less than 1 year to live]	Would participants want information when given a hypothetical scenario in which their doctor believed they may have less than 5 years/1 year to live?
Kistler et al, United States of America, 2006^22j	70+ years adults living in continuing care retirement communities	82 years^k	116^j	14%^j [strongly agree] 52%^j [agree]	“I want my main doctor to talk to me about how long I might live”
Lewis et al, United States of America, 2006^23j	70+ years adults living in continuing care retirement communities	82 years	116^j	52%^j [agree]	“To help make cancer screening decisions, I want my doctor to talk with me about how long he/she thinks I might live”
Mathie et al, United Kingdom, 2012²⁷	Care home residents	88 years	121	Minority [majority of residents said they did not want to, even though some of the care homes were using care home-specific palliative care support tools, including advance care plans]	Residents were asked if they would like to talk to the staff about end-of-life
Schoenborn et al, United States of America, 2017⁵⁷	Community-dwelling older adults	76 years	40	35% [wanted to discuss life expectancy if it were longer than 1 year] 33% [wanted to discuss life expectancy only toward the end of life]	Older adults were asked whether they want to discuss life expectancy in the range of years with their primary care clinicians
Schoenborn et al, United States of America, 2018⁴⁶	Older adults	73 years	878	41% [wanted to discuss]	Patients were asked if they were the hypothetical patient, whether they would like to discuss how long they may live with the doctor
Patients with Parkinson’s disease
Tuck et al, United States of America, 2015³⁰	Parkinson’s disease	N/R	267	24% [at the time of the diagnosis] 14% [during the next few visits] 25% [only when the disease worsens] 24% [wait until I ask]	When should your doctor discuss life expectancy?
Inpatients with mixed advanced disease
Kai et al, Japan, 1993⁴⁷	Mixed terminal disease	68 years	201	45% [candid information desired at all events] 5% [candid information desired if disease is curable]	Patients’ preferences about candid information about diagnosis and prognosis
Waller et al, Australia, 2020⁵³	Mixed advanced disease	81 years	186	23%^l [no, but I would like to]	Has anyone talked to you about your life expectancy?
Members of the public with no specific diagnosis
Cardona et al, Australia, 2019²⁹	Members of the public	N/R	497	24% [yes, but only when I ask] 68% [yes, it is the doctors duty to tell me even if I don’t ask]	If you had advanced chronic illness, would you like to be informed about whether it is likely that you may not live more than a few months?
De Vleminck et al, Belgium, 2014²⁸	Members of the public	N/R	n=9,651^m	77%^m [yes, in principle always] 14%^m [yes, only if I ask]	Information preference of the studied population if they are faced with a life-limiting illness to know their life expectancy with the disease
Harding et al, United Kingdom, 2013³³	Members of the public	51 years	9344	74% [always] 14% [if I ask]	Patient preferences for wanting to know information on time left

^aButow 1996 reported the mean age at the time of diagnosis and not at time of enrolment in the study

^bHagerty 2004 had varying proportions of patients answering the survey; 95% answered the life expectancy question^cMackenzie 2018 reported the proportion of patients that had not previously discussed life expectancy. This proportion is therefor based on the 127 patients that had not previously discussed life expectancy. A total of 17% had previously had the discussion

^dPardon 2009 and Pardon 2011 are based on the same study and reported the same outcome and is therefore only represented once in the table

^eUchida 2019 only had 226 patients (87.3%) completing the life expectancy section of the survey

^fWaller 2019 and Waller 2021 are based on the same study population but reported different outcomes and is therefore presented twice in the table

^gWaller 2019 reported the portion of patients that had not previously participated in discussion of life expectancy. This proportion is therefore based on the 130 patients that in total had not previously discussed life expectancy. Total of 29.7% had previously discussed their life expectancy^h

ⁱAhalt 2012 reported two different outcomes regarding preference for discussing life expectancy. Both are presented in the table, but only the 5 years willingness is part of the data analysis ^jKistler 2006 and Lewis 2006 are based on the same study, but reported different outcome, and is therefore presented twice in the table

^kKistler 2006 reported age intervals instead of a mean/median age. The mean/median age from Lewis 2006 was copied since both studies reported on the same study population^lWaller 2020 reported the portion of patients that had not previously discussed life expectancy. This proportion is therefore based on the 154 patients that in total had not previously discussed life expectancy. A total of 9% had previously discussed their life expectancy

^mDe Vleminck 2014 had 2,372 patients (24.6%) not answering the life expectancy section

N/R not reported