Designing and Testing an End-of-Life Discussion Intervention for African American Patients With Heart Failure and Their Families.

The article describes intervention development and previous pilot results, not a new controlled trial of the full end-of-life coaching intervention. The current paper does not clearly report the sample size, how participants were assigned to groups, or the main outcome analysis for the intervention it describes. The intervention includes several components at once, including nurse coaching, a trajectory graph, the Conversation Ready pamphlet, advance care planning, lay parish nurse support, and teach-back, so the contribution of any single component cannot be separated. The reported depression finding comes from a previous study and is not shown to apply to the full culturally tailored intervention described here. The paper relies on the authors' own prior studies and institutional programs, including a TPOPP form created by a coauthor, so its results may not generalize to other settings.

No funding or conflict-of-interest declaration is provided in the supplied text. The paper promotes tools and programs linked to the authors' institution, including a TPOPP form established by a coauthor.

Do not read the 80% and 90% pilot ratings, or the prior depression finding, as proof that this end-of-life coaching intervention works for African American patients with end-stage heart failure. The paper describes intervention development and previous pilot results, not a new controlled outcome trial.