Palliative care development in Asia Pacific region : a review of assessment indicators

Context: Organizations such as Asia Pacific Hospice Palliative Care Network functions to promote quality palliative care development through training and education, research collaboration and variety relevant projects and events for all in the Asia and Pacific region. Objectives: To summarise and further compare existing development indicators used in Asia Pacific region for palliative care. Methods: The current review used Whittemore and Knafl ’s framework for integrative reviews. PubMed, Embase, CINAHL and Google Scholar databases were searched for eligible studies. This review focused on palliative care development according to the domains and indicators identified by the World Health Organization Public Health Strategy and ATLANTES Palliative Care Research Group. Joanna Briggs Institute critical appraisal checklists were adopted to assess the methodological quality of included studies. Results: Ten studies were included and two main findings were identified: (1) There was a strong evidence of educational preparation, use of medicines and service provision for palliative care development in Asia Pacific and (2) Professional activities and policy geared towards palliative care development were limited and had relative emphasis at a country-level in Asia Pacific. Conclusions: Palliative care development is largely influenced by policies and funding structures as well as by cultural views and beliefs of stakeholders. It is expected that individuals, stakeholder and practitioners in Asia Pacific might have differing views and cultural beliefs when compared to the European or western counterparts. The lack of details and documentation in the region and inadequate reporting measures impacts on the development of strong palliative care framework.