The Effect of Dignity Therapy on Terminally-Ill Adult Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: We aimed to evaluate the effect of dignity therapy on the dignity, distress, and quality of life of terminally-ill adult patients.Methods: All randomized controlled trials published prior to Jan 2021 were searched through database, includKMBASE, KoreaMed, NDSL, and RISS. The RoB 2 was used to assess risk of bias. Effect sizes, Hedge's g and Higgins I2-statistics were used for meta-analysis.Results: We finally identified 10 studies for a systematic review, and eight studies out of them were selected for a meta-analysis. Overall, 776 participants were included in the meta-analysis. There were significant differences between with and without dignity therapy groups in dignity and anxiety (SMD = -0.3805, Cl = -0.5606, -0.2004; SMD = -0.1932, Cl = -0.3774, -0.0090, respectively) while there was no significant difference in quality of life and depression (SMD=0.4678, Cl = -0.0989, 1.0345; SMD= -0.0513, Cl= -0.2461, 0.1434, respectively).Conclusion: Dignity therapy may be effective for terminally ill patients on dignity and anxiety. We suggested further empirical studies with dignity therapy and repetitive meta-analysis in the future due to heterogeneity of the studies.