Table 3 Medline search strategy

1. adult children/ or caregivers/ or friends/ or exp. parents/ or siblings/ or spouses/

2. nuclear family/ or only child/ or siblings/ or spouses/

3. (carer or “care partner*” or partner or daughter or son or aunt or uncle or cousin or niece or nephew or grandchildren or granddaughter or grandson or neighbor* or neighbour*).mp. [mp = title, abstract, original title, name of substance word, subject heading word, keyword heading word, protocol supplementary concept word, rare disease supplementary concept word, unique identifier]

4. 1 or 2 or 3

5. exp. bereavement/

6. (grief or griev* or bereave* or sorrow* or misery* or mourn* or teariness or condole* or trauer).mp. [mp = title, abstract, original title, name of substance word, subject heading word, keyword heading word, protocol supplementary concept word, rare disease supplementary concept word, unique identifier]

7. (loss adj5 (grief or griev* or bereave* or sorrow* or misery* or mourn* or teariness or condole* or trauer)).mp. [mp = title, abstract, original title, name of substance word, subject heading word, keyword heading word, protocol supplementary concept word, rare disease supplementary concept word, unique identifier]

8. 5 or 6 or 7

9. (weight adj3 loss).mp. [mp = title, abstract, original title, name of substance word, subject heading word, keyword heading word, protocol supplementary concept word, rare disease supplementary concept word, unique identifier]

10. 4 and 8

11. 10 not 9

12. Palliative Care/

13. Hospice Care/

14. (“palliative care” or “palliative service*” or “palliative program*”).mp. [mp = title, abstract, original title, name of substance word, subject heading word, keyword heading word, protocol supplementary concept word, rare disease supplementary concept word, unique identifier]

15. (“hospice care” or “hospice service*” or “hospice program*”).mp. [mp = title, abstract, original title, name of substance word, subject heading word, keyword heading word, protocol supplementary concept word, rare disease supplementary concept word, unique identifier]

16. 12 or 13 or 14 or 15

17. 11 and 16

18. (((“semi-structured” or semistructured or unstructured or informal or “in-depth” or indepth or “face-to-face” or structured or guide) adj3 (interview* or discussion* or questionnaire*)) or (focus group* or qualitative or ethnograph* or fieldwork or “field work” or “key informant” or themes)).ti,ab. or interviews as topic/ or focus groups/ or narration/ or qualitative research/

19. 17 and 18

20. meta-analysis/

21. metasynthesis.mp.

22. meta-synthesis.mp.

23. meta synthesis.mp.

24. “review”/

25. 20 or 21 or 22 or 23 or 24

26. 19 not 25

27. limit 26 to (english language and humans and yr. = “1990 -Current”)