Table 1.
Characteristics of the included studies (n = 36).
| Study characteristics | N (%) |
|---|---|
| Type of study | |
| Quantitative study | 22 (61) |
| Qualitative study | 10 (28) |
| Mixed-methods study | 4 (11) |
| Country/region a | |
| South Korea a | 10 |
| China a | 6 |
| Hong Kong | 6 |
| Taiwan | 6 |
| Japan a | 4 |
| Singapore | 3 |
| Malaysia | 3 |
| Term related to ACP used b | |
| Advance care planning | 15 |
| Term related to ACP documents: | |
| Advance directive | 19 |
| DNR order/directive | 2 |
| Physician order for life-sustaining-treatment | 3 |
| Term related to ACP conversation: | |
| End-of-life decision-making | 5 |
| Advance directive decision-making | 1 |
| The element of ACP studied | |
| ACP as completion of documents | 14 |
| ACP as process of discussion on preferences | 13 |
| Both | 9 |
| Number of patients in the study | |
| 0–100 | 15 |
| 101–500 | 17 |
| 501–1000 | 1 |
| >1000 | 3 |
| Type of subjects studied | |
| Patients: | |
| - Cancer | 14 |
| - Non-cancer: | |
| Elderly with chronic serious illnesses | 16 |
| Chronic dialysis | 1 |
| - Not-specified non terminal serious illnesses | 4 |
| - Not-specified terminal illness | 1 |
| Setting | |
| Hospital | 23 |
| Palliative care unit or hospice | 3 |
| Elderly facility | 9 |
| No restriction in the setting | 1 |
ACP: advance care planning; DNR: do-not-resuscitate.
a
One study was conducted in South Korea, China, and Japan.
b
Several studies used more than one terms related to advance care planning.