Research on Palliative Care in Mexico. Scoping review

The normative process initiated with the reforms to the General Health Law in 2009 has paralleled the institutionalization of Palliative Care and the development of academic and research work in our country. With the objective of describing the scientific activity developed in the area of palliative care in Mexico in the last 25 years, a scoping review was carried out to describe the characteristics of research papers published in scientific journals. Descriptive statistics were calculated, and content analyzed. We found 608 articles, selected 81. The first report was publisher 1992; the year with the most publications was 2013 with 19. The national journal that most covered the subject was Gaceta Medica Oncologica, at the international level was Psicooncologia. The most recurrent themes are professional attitudes/decisions, end-of-life care and activities of hospice teams. The most studied disease is cancer. Those who maintain the leadership in the publications are doctors with clinical and epidemiological perspectives, in journals of low impact and national distribution.