A new meta-synthesis of qualitative research has brought together what heart failure patients, their caregivers, and clinicians have reported about palliative care needs, organizing those accounts into five broad themes. The analysis, published in BMC Palliative Care, systematically searched ten databases and synthesized 13 studies involving 210 patients, 31 caregivers, and 22 healthcare and hospice clinicians.
The research team, led by Huichao Zhang, searched PubMed, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, Embase, Scopus, CINAHL, CNKI, WanFang, VIP, and SinoMed from database inception to February 26, 2026. They included qualitative studies and mixed-methods studies containing qualitative data that reported the palliative care needs of heart failure patients in healthcare or home care settings.
Study quality was assessed with the 2020 Qualitative Research Quality Evaluation Standard issued by the Joanna Briggs Institute, and the findings were combined using the JBI meta-aggregative method. Most of the included studies were descriptive qualitative designs, a point the authors note in characterizing the evidence base.
The synthesis produced five synthesized themes and 15 research categories. The first theme, physical needs, covered restoring physiological function, alleviating suffering, and maintaining daily living abilities. The second, psychological and spiritual needs, included relief of negative emotions and psychological adjustment, privacy and respect, and spiritual needs.
The third theme concerned social support needs, spanning love and companionship of family, support from friends and relatives, professional support, and social health insurance and financial assistance.
The fourth theme addressed caring and end-of-life decision-making needs, comprising advance care planning, continuity of care, and personalized care. The fifth theme captured information and communication needs, including disease knowledge, palliative care knowledge, and communication and understanding between patients, families, and professionals.
On the basis of these findings, the authors conclude that the palliative care needs of heart failure patients are diverse. They propose that future palliative care should focus on developing a patient-need-oriented comprehensive palliative care framework that integrates ongoing symptom management, multidimensional social support, psychological-spiritual care, individualized end-of-life decision guidance, and tailored information-communication strategies.
As a meta-synthesis of qualitative studies, the analysis aggregates experiences and reported needs rather than measuring the effectiveness of any intervention. The authors position the work as evidence-based guidance for designing interventions that meet the actual needs of heart failure patients, and the article is available open access, published on October 20, 2026.
Subject of Research: Palliative care needs of heart failure patients as synthesized from qualitative studies
Article Title: Palliative care needs of heart failure patients: a meta-synthesis of qualitative studies
Article References: Zhang, H., Yan, S., Shi, Y., Xu, L., Ning, Z., Gu, Y., & Tian, B. (2026). Palliative care needs of heart failure patients: a meta-synthesis of qualitative studies. BMC Palliative Care. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12904-026-02384-7
Image Credits: AI Generated
DOI: 10.1186/s12904-026-02384-7
Keywords: heart failure, palliative care, meta-synthesis, qualitative research, advance care planning, symptom management, social support, psychological-spiritual care, caregivers, Joanna Briggs Institute, BMC Palliative Care, end-of-life care
News Source: Ophelia Keating. (October 29, 2026). Heart Failure Patients’ Palliative Care Needs Mapped in Meta-Synthesis of 13 Qualitative Studies. Scienmag.
