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Evidence summaries

Aftercare of Chronic Patients and Frail Elderly Discharged from Hospital

Aftercare of chronic patients and frail edlderly after hospital discharge has probably no significant beneficial effect. Level of evidence: "C"

A systematic narrative review 1 including 17 studies on nursing interventions with a total of 5307 subjects was abstracted in DARE. Of these 12 were RCTs and 5 were controlled studies. The majority of studies did not report clear beneficial effects for the intervention group. Only 2 of the RCTs had positive outcomes. Studies with positive results showed lower methodological scores.

Comment: The quality of evidence is downgraded by study limitations and inconsistency; heterogeneity in interventions and outcomes.

    References

    • Bours GJ, Ketelaars CA, Frederiks CM, Abu-Saad HH, Wouters EF. The effects of aftercare on chronic patients and frail elderly patients when discharged from hospital: a systematic review. J Adv Nurs 1998 May;27(5):1076-86. [PubMed][DARE]

Primary/Secondary Keywords