| Study | Reason for exclusion |
|---|---|
| Aaronson 1999 | Wrong intervention |
| Aasmul 2018 | ACP/AD and uptake |
| Abernethy 2006 | Primarily clinical management |
| Abernethy 2013 | Primarily clinical management |
| Abrahm 2016 | No communication intervention |
| ACTRN12614000150640 | Not communication at EoL |
| Agar 2016a | Non‐RCT/quasi |
| Agren 2019 | Population not at EoL |
| Ahrens 2003 | Non‐RCT/quasi |
| Aikman 1999 | ACP/AD and uptake |
| Akard 2020 | Not communication with healthcare professional |
| Akard 2021 | Not communication with healthcare professional |
| Akard 2021b | No healthcare professional involved in communication |
| Akyar 2019 | Abstract only; non‐RCT/quasi |
| Alexander 2006 | Communication skills training |
| Alghanim 2019 | Population not at EoL |
| Allen 2008 | Decision/tool focus |
| Ambuel 2001 | Non‐RCT/quasi |
| An 2019 | No‐ RCT/quasi (non‐comparative data only) |
| An 2020 | Data not separated by study arms, no communication intervention evaluated |
| Anandan 2020 | Abstract only; not EoL communication |
| Ang 2018 | Non‐RCT/quasi |
| Anonymous 2012 | Not research (commentary on cohort study) |
| Aoun 2015 | Non‐RCT/quasi |
| Au 2006 | Focus on resource use over last 6 months of life (no communication intervention) |
| Azoulay 2001 | No communication intervention |
| Azoulay 2002 | Not communication with patients at EoL |
| Azoulay 2007 | Retracted |
| Azoulay 2018 | Not communication with patients at EoL |
| Back 2007 | Communication skills training |
| Baharvandi | Population not at EoL |
| Bahary 2016 | Wrong intervention |
| Bajwah 2012 | Protocol |
| Baker 2000 | Bereaved population (non‐EoL population) |
| Baker 2017 | ACP/AD and uptake |
| Baker 2017a | Duplicate |
| Barrio‐Cantalejo 2009 | ACP/AD and uptake |
| Bartlow 2005 | Not research |
| Bauman 2015 | Non‐RCT/quasi |
| Bernacki 2014 | Not a research study |
| Best 2019 | Population not at EoL |
| Bhatia 2015 | Non‐RCT/quasi |
| Bickell 2017 | Communication skills training |
| Bickell 2018 | Communication skills training |
| Bickell 2018b | Population not at EoL |
| Bickell 2020 | Population not at EoL |
| Bloch 2015 | ACP/AD and uptake |
| Bose‐Brill 2016 | Not face‐to‐face communication |
| Boyd 2016 | Non‐RCT, ACP focus |
| Braus 2016 | No communication intervention |
| Brown 1999 | Not EoL; minority of participants had life expectancy < 12 months |
| Brown 2001 | Population is not at EoL (cancer patients) |
| Buck 2013 | Not research |
| Butow 1994 | Population is not at EoL |
| Carson 2016 | Wrong population |
| Chang 2020 | Population not at EoL |
| Chen 2019 | ACP/AD |
| Chung Vincent 2016 | No communication intervention |
| Clarke‐Pounder 2015 | Wrong intervention |
| Clayton 2012 | Non‐RCT/quasi |
| Coats 2018 | No communication intervention |
| Connors 1995 | Population is not at EoL |
| Cornbleet 2002 | Wrong intervention |
| Curtis 1997 | Qualitative; non‐RCT |
| Curtis 2004 | No communication intervention |
| Curtis 2005 | Review |
| Curtis 2013 | Communication skills training |
| Curtis 2016 | Wrong intervention |
| Curtis 2018 | Population is not at EoL (life expectancy > 12 months) |
| Curtis 2018a | Population is not at EoL (life expectancy > 12 months) |
| Dangayach 2011 | ACP/AD and uptake |
| Delgado‐Guay 2016 | Primarily focused on evaluation of wishes using tool |
| De Padova 2008 | No communication intervention |
| Dimoska 2008 | Systematic review |
| Doorenbos 2016 | Focus on goals of care including ACP, not EoL |
| Dose 2015 | No communication intervention |
| EAPC 2016 | No communication intervention |
| El‐Jawahri 2010 | Not face‐to‐face communication |
| El‐Jawahri 2019 | Decision tool focus |
| Enzinger 2020 | Population not at EoL |
| Ernecoff 2017 | Population not at EoL |
| Fakhri 2016 | Wrong intervention |
| Fakhri 2016a | Not face‐to‐face communication |
| Fallowfield 2002 | Communication skills training |
| Fischer 2021 | ACP/AD |
| Flannery 2019 | Population not at EoL |
| Flannery 2022 | Not communication at EoL |
| Freytag 2018 | Baseline (pre‐intervention) data only, no communication intervention |
| Fujimori 2014 | Communication skills training |
| Fujimori 2017 | Communication skills training |
| Garrouste‐Orgeas 2016 | Wrong intervention |
| Gilligan 2017 | Non‐RCT/quasi |
| Goelz 2010 | Communication skills training |
| Goldstein 2019 | Communication skills training |
| Gramling 2016 | Cross‐sectional data only, no communication intervention evaluated |
| Graul 2019 | Not EoL communication intervention |
| Graul 2020 | Not EoL communication intervention |
| Greer 2018 | Population not at EoL |
| Hancock 2016 | Poster with limited results (pilot study only) |
| Hannon 2015 | Wrong intervention |
| Hanson 2019 | Primarily clinical |
| Henselmans 2020 | Decision/decision tool focus |
| Hinton 1998 | Non‐RCT/quasi |
| Houben 2019 | Primarily ACP focus |
| Hudson 2018 | Population not at EoL |
| Hudson 2021 | Population not at EoL |
| ISRCTN36040085 | Primarily clinical management of care |
| Janssen 2011a | No communication intervention |
| Janssen 2011b | No communication intervention |
| Johnson 2016 | ACP/AD and uptake |
| Johnson 2016a | ACP/AD and uptake |
| Jones 2004 | Wrong intervention |
| Jones 2011 | Wrong population |
| Kirchhoff 2012 | ACP/AD and uptake |
| Knauft 2005 | Qualitative; non‐RCT |
| Knaus 1995 | Not EoL |
| Kruse 2013 | Wrong intervention |
| Lakin 2017 | Not EoL, not RCT |
| Lee 2015 | No communication intervention |
| Lee Brittney 2017 | No communication intervention |
| Lincoln 2020 | Abstract; not comparative |
| Lincoln 2020b | Protocol; not time frame for EoL communication |
| Loh 2020 | No communication intervention evaluated |
| Long 2013 | Duplicate |
| Long 2014 | No communication intervention |
| Lyon 2009 | ACP/AD and uptake |
| Lyon 2009a | ACP/AD and uptake |
| Lyon 2013 | ACP/AD and uptake |
| Lyon 2013a | ACP/AD and uptake |
| Lyon 2014 | ACP/AD and uptake |
| Lyon 2017 | ACP/AD and uptake |
| Lyon 2020 | ACP/AD and uptake |
| Maciasz 2013 | Not face‐to‐face communication |
| Maciasz 2013a | No communication intervention |
| Mah 2020 | Not EoL communication intervention |
| Malhotra 2019 | Population is not at EoL |
| Marbella 1998 | Wrong intervention |
| Martin 2020 | Communication skills training |
| Martinsson 2016 | Communication skills training |
| Matthys 2021 | Population not at EoL |
| McFarlin 2011 | Duplicate |
| Mehnert 2017 | Primarily clinical management (non‐communication) |
| Meier 2004 | Wrong intervention |
| Menon 2016 | Decision/tool focus |
| Murray 2008 | A protocol |
| Murray 2010 | Communication skills training |
| NCT00325611 | Primarily clinical management of care |
| NCT00374010 | ACP/AD and uptake |
| NCT00580515 | Wrong population |
| NCT01160367 | Wrong population |
| NCT01245621 | Primarily focussed on management of care |
| NCT01289444 | ACP/AD and uptake |
| NCT01670461 | Wrong population |
| NCT01828775 | No communication intervention |
| NCT01914848 | ACP/AD and uptake |
| NCT01944813 | ACP/AD and uptake |
| NCT01990742 | Primarily clinical management of care |
| NCT02112461 | No communication intervention |
| NCT02261935 | Not a communication intervention |
| NCT02349412 | Primarily clinical management (non‐communication) |
| NCT02445937 | No communication intervention |
| NCT02463162 | ACP/AD and uptake |
| NCT02606149 | Primarily focused on treatment decisions |
| NCT02723799 | Population not at EoL |
| NCT02730858 | Primarily clinical management of care |
| NCT02917603 | Not face‐to‐face communication |
| NCT02944344 | Not face‐to‐face communication intervention (primarily online) |
| NCT03068013 | No communication intervention |
| NCT03099746 | Not primarily face‐to‐face (doctor‐patient/carer) communication |
| NCT03138564 | No communication intervention |
| NCT03387436 | ACP/AD and uptake |
| NCT03506087 | ACP/AD and uptake |
| NCT03548142 | Population does not fit EoL criteria |
| NCT03626402 | Population does not fit EoL criteria |
| Nipp 2020 | Population not at EoL |
| Nishioka 2019 | Communication skills training |
| Norton 2019 | Qualitative data only, not separated by study arms, no communication intervention |
| O'Donnell 2016 | Wrong population |
| O'Donnell 2018 | ACP/AD and uptake |
| Oliver 2001 | Population not at EoL |
| Oliver 2012 | Primarily clinical management (non‐communication) |
| Paladino 2014 | Communication skills training |
| Paladino 2015 | ACP/AD and uptake |
| Paladino 2016 | Wrong population |
| Parker 2017 | Primarily clinical management (non‐communication) |
| Perry 2005 | ACP/AD and uptake |
| Pintova 2020 | Population not at EoL |
| Pirl 2019 | Abstract; data not interventional (associations only) |
| Pollak 2019 | ACP/AD focus and uptake |
| Pollak 2020 | Communication skills training |
| Porensky 2011 | Wrong population |
| Ramos 2013 | No communication intervention |
| Reinhardt 2015 | Data not presented by RCT arm data only, no communication intervention evaluated |
| Reinhardt 2017 | Retrospective data only, no communication intervention |
| Reinke 2011 | Non‐RCT/quasi |
| Reuther 2014 | Population not at EoL |
| Rousseau 2016 | Wrong population |
| Ruiz 2016 | Non‐RCT/quasi |
| Russell 2016 | No communication intervention |
| Saeed 2018 | Baseline (pre‐intervention) data, no communication intervention evaluated |
| Sanchez 2018 | Commentary (on Curtis 2018 trial report) |
| Schneiderman 2003 | Primarily clinical management |
| Smith 2017 | Primarily clinical management |
| Smucker 1993 | ACP/AD and uptake |
| Song 2009 | Wrong population |
| Song 2016 | Wrong population |
| Song 2018 | Protocol |
| Starks 2016 | Wrong population |
| Steinhauser 2008 | No communication intervention |
| Street 2010 | Population not at EoL |
| Sudore 2010 | No communication intervention |
| Sulmasy 2017 | Focus on decision‐making features (e.g. decisional control preferences) not broad communication focus |
| Szmuilowicz 2010 | Communication skills training |
| Temel 2017 | Primarily clinical management (non‐communication) |
| Temel 2020 | Abstract; not EoL communication intervention |
| Tierney 2001 | ACP/AD and uptake |
| Toles 2018 | Non RCT/quasi‐RCT; not comparative intervention data |
| Trevino 2019 | Baseline data only for trial, no communication intervention evaluated |
| Tulsky 2011 | Communication skills training |
| Uitdehaag 2012 | No communication intervention |
| Vaccaro 2016 | ACP/AD and uptake |
| Van Laarhoven 2018 | Communication skills training |
| Verhofstede 2012 | Primarily clinical management (non‐communication) |
| Verreault 2018 | No communication intervention |
| Volandes 2009 | Decision/tool focus |
| Volandes 2013 | Decision/tool focus |
| Von Blanckenburg | Population not at EoL |
| von Heymann‐Horan 2019 | Not EoL communication intervention |
| Voruganti 2017 | Not face‐to‐face communication |
| Walker 2017 | Wrong population |
| Walker 2017a | Duplicate |
| Wallen 2012 | Primarily clinical management (non‐communication) |
| Waller 2016 | ACP/AD and uptake |
| Walshe 2016 | Wrong population |
| Walshe 2016a | No health practitioner (peer‐peer communication) |
| Wanta Barbara 1998 | Non‐RCT/quasi |
| Wendlandt 2019 | Not RCT/quasi‐RCT; assessment of associations not intervention |
| Wentlandt 2012 | No communication intervention |
| Whisenant 2017 | Primarily clinical management (non‐communication) |
| White 2018 | Duplicate |
| White 2018a | Wrong population |
| Wilkinson 2015 | Not face‐to‐face communication |
| Wilson 2013 | Not face‐to‐face communication |
| Wilson 2015 | Not face‐to‐face communication |
| Wittenberg‐Lyles 2013 | No communication intervention |
| Wolfe 2014 | No communication intervention |
| Yilmaz 2020 | Not evaluation of communication intervention |
| Yun 2011 | Wrong intervention |
| Zaider 2012 | Duplicate |
| Zaider 2020 | No communication intervention |
| Zimmerman 2014 | Palliative care (non‐communication) intervention |
ACP/AD: advance care planning/advance directive; EoL: end of life; RCT: randomised controlled trial.