Tibaldi 2004.
| Study characteristics | ||
| Methods | Parallel randomised trial Study conducted between February 1999 and April 2002. |
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| Participants | Setting: Italy Patients: elderly with advanced dementia Mean age (SD): T: 82.9 (7.9), C: 84.1 (7.5) Number recruited: hospital at home: 56; inpatient: 53 |
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| Interventions | Hospital at home run by S. Giovanni Battista Hospital, Turin, Italy: GHHS, patients referred from emergency department. 24‐hour‐a‐day care available, home nursing multidisciplinary care, rapid access to equipment. |
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| Outcomes | Behavioural disturbances, number of patients treated with antipsychotic drugs on admission and on discharge, mortality, length of stay, place of discharge (home or to a nursing home) | |
| Notes | Follow‐up: to discharge from service 4 participants admitted from hospital at home to hospital for new medical problems. Funding: not reported Conflicts of interest: not reported Ethical approval: not reported |
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| Risk of bias | ||
| Bias | Authors' judgement | Support for judgement |
| Random sequence generation (selection bias) | Unclear risk | Random sequence generation not described |
| Allocation concealment (selection bias) | Unclear risk | Allocation concealment not described |
| Baseline outcome measurements (selection bias) | Low risk | Baseline outcome measurements done prior to intervention for cognitive status, severity of disease, and activities of daily living; no relevant differences found |
| Baseline characteristics (selection bias) | Low risk | Baseline characteristics of the study and control groups are reported and are similar |
| Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes | Unclear risk | Blinding of participants and personnel not possible |
| Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) Subjective outcomes | Unclear risk | Assessment method not reported |
| Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) Objective outcomes | Unclear risk | Low risk for mortality |
| Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes | Unclear risk | Withdrawals not reported |
| Selective reporting (reporting bias) | Unclear risk | Insufficient information to allocate low or high risk |