Naylor 1994.
| Study characteristics | ||
| Methods | Parallel randomised trial Study conducted between July 1989 and February 1992 |
|
| Participants | Patients aged ≥ 70 years, admitted to medical ward and cardiac surgery, English‐speaking, alert and orientated at admission, and able to use telephone after discharge. The medical diagnostic related groups were congestive heart failure and angina/myocardial infarction, the surgical were coronary artery bypass graft and cardiac valve replacement Number of patients recruited: T = 140, C = 136 Mean age (SD): 76 years |
|
| Interventions |
Setting: Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, USA Pre‐admission assessment: no Case finding on admission: not clear Inpatient assessment and preparation of a discharge plan based on individual patient needs: the discharge plan included a comprehensive assessment of the needs of the elderly patient and their caregiver, an education component for the patient and family and interdisciplinary communication regarding discharge status Implementation of the discharge plan: implemented by geriatric nurse specialist and extended from admission to 2 weeks post‐discharge with ongoing evaluation of the effectiveness of the discharge plan Monitoring: not reported Control: received the routine discharge planning available in the hospital |
|
| Outcomes | Hospital length of stay, readmission to hospital, health status, health service costs Follow‐up at 2, 6, and 12 weeks post‐discharge |
|
| Notes |
Funding: National Institute of Nursing Research, USA Conflicts of interest: not reported Ethical approval: not reported Notes: intervention implemented at time of admission |
|
| Risk of bias | ||
| Bias | Authors' judgement | Support for judgement |
| Random sequence generation (selection bias) | Unclear risk | Comment: Not described |
| Allocation concealment (selection bias) | Unclear risk | Comment: Not described |
| Baseline outcome data | Low risk | Comment: Baseline outcome data reported for health status and previous rehospitalisations and similar between groups (Table 1) |
| Baseline characteristics similar | Low risk | Comment: Baseline data reported and similar between groups (Table 1) |
| Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) All outcomes | Low risk | Comment: Yes, for objective measures |
| Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes | Low risk | Comment: All patients included in the final sample accounted for |
| Study adequately protected against contamination | Unclear risk | Comment: Participants recruited from the same hospital and allocated to intervention and comparison groups; study personnel delivered the intervention (p.1000) |
| Selective reporting (reporting bias) | Unclear risk | Comment: Not able to judge from available information |
| Other bias | Low risk | Comment: Not reported |