Palliative and Supportive Care in Turkey: Literature Review and Current Status of Research

Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine the current literature on palliative and supportive care in Turkey, discuss current status and future research areas.

Methods: This study was conducted as a literature review. Literature review focused on palliative and supportive care studies done in Turkey. PubMed and Turkish National databases through Turkish Academic Network and Information Center were searched in 12-16 October 2015 with keywords “Turkey/Turkish”, “palliative care”, “supportive care”.  All hits including palliative and supportive care papers from Turkey written either in English or Turkish were included whereas letters to the editor, commentaries, conference abstracts were excluded. Following database searches papers’ title and abstracts reviewed for relevance and eligibility. Included articles were analyzed for type, design, population, and aim. Number and percentages were used for presenting the related data.

Results: Literature search identified 224 hits. Of the 224 titles and abstracts identified through and 32 satisfied inclusion criteria. Of the 32 paper 14 was review papers and 18 were research papers. Additionally national databases search resulted with 6 dissertations. First publication was done in 1996 as a review study focusing on palliative care and cancer; there were scarce number of papers till 2005. The research papers were conducted as descriptive studies, mostly with health care professionals and cancer patients with the aim of determining the views and expectations of sample group as well as symptoms and symptom control issues. Review papers’ earlier focus was palliative care and cancer, current status of palliative care in Turkey, and focus shifted to chronic diseases and palliative care. Of the 6 dissertations five were for master’s degree, one was for PhD, and five of them were done by nursing profession and one health care administration.

Conclusion: Palliative care in Turkey is still on development phase, status can be stated as generalized palliative care provision. Research on that area is limited to descriptive studies and general topics. More community based action and intervention research on chronic conditions, developing models, caregivers and children is needed to direct the policies, education and system infrastructure of country.