Context: The most common concern among terminally ill patients in palliative care is death, which is often perceived as a psychosocial stigma. The knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and experiences regarding death influence both the delivery of palliative care and its outcomes. Aims: This study aimed to perform a quantitative analysis of research publications in palliative care journals for articles on Death and bereavement care (DBC). Settings and Design: Systematic review of palliative care journals. Methods and Material: Twelve palliative care journals were searched for articles related to ‘death’ in title of the articles published in 2009 and 2010. The reporting rates of all journals were compared. The selected articles were categorized into practice, education, research and administration, and subsequently grouped into original and review articles. The original articles were sub-grouped into qualitative and quantitative studies, and the review articles were grouped into narrative and systematic reviews. Each subgroup of original articles category was further classified according to study designs. Statistical analysis used: Descriptive analysis using frequencies and percentiles was done using SPSS for Windows version 11.5. Results: The overall reporting rate among all journals was 5.27% (96/1821), and Palliat Support Care had highest reporting rate of 14.4% (17/118), followed by BMC Palliat Care with 9.3% (4/43), and Palliat Med with 7.4% (16/216). Conclusions: The overall reporting rate for DBC articles in palliative care journals was very low and there were very few randomized clinical trials and systematic reviews found. The study findings indicate a lack of adequate evidence base for DBC. 

Keywords: Evidence-based palliative care; Research; Journal reporting; Publication trend; Death; Bereavement. “The question is not how, when or where we will die, but how, when and where we will live until death.”