| Study characteristics |
| Methods |
RCT |
| Participants |
Setting: medical centre, northern Taiwan
N = 162
Sample: admitted to hospital for an accidental single side hip fracture (69% women)
Age (years): mean 78.2 (SD 7.8)
Inclusion criteria: aged ≥ 60; received hip arthroplasty or internal fixation; able to perform full range of motion; prefracture Chinese Barthel Index > 70
Exclusion criteria: severely cognitively impaired; terminally ill |
| Interventions |
1. Multidisciplinary programme (geriatric consultation services, a continuous rehabilitation programme, discharge planning services)
2. Control: usual care |
| Outcomes |
1. Number of fallers |
| Duration of the study |
2 years |
| Notes |
|
| Risk of bias |
| Bias |
Authors' judgement |
Support for judgement |
| Random sequence generation (selection bias) |
Low risk |
Quote: "The randomization was conducted using flip of coin by a neutral third party who was not involved in delivering the intervention or assessing outcomes". |
| Allocation concealment (selection bias) |
Unclear risk |
Insufficient detail to allow a definite judgement. Quote: "Those persons who agreed to participate were randomly assigned to an experimental or control group at the time of admission. The randomization was conducted using flip of coin by a neutral third party who was not involved in delivering the intervention or assessing outcomes". |
| Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias)
All outcomes |
Unclear risk |
Insufficient information to permit judgement |
| Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias)
Falls and fallers |
High risk |
Ascertained by self report from the participant to an unblinded evaluator |
| Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias)
Fallers |
Unclear risk |
SeeAppendix 3 for method of assessment. Insufficient information to permit judgement. |
| Risk of bias in recall of falls |
High risk |
Quote: "Occurrence of falls and mortality were assessed by self report of patients and family caregivers." "All subjects were assessed at 1, 3, 6, 12, 18, and 24 months after discharge". No mention of concurrent collection of data and recall appears to be over periods longer than 1 month. |
