Patient centred outcomes should be focus of interventions to sustain independence in older people

Maintenance of function is increasingly important as populations age. In their systematic review and network meta-analysis of community based complex interventions to sustain independence in older people, Crocker and colleagues investigated which groups of intervention components most likely sustain independence.1 We noted that few of the estimates were significant and that the authors’ interpretations may have been overly enthusiastic. We recently reviewed the impact of complex preventive interventions as a whole and by their individual components, regardless of whether the components were considered to be active ingredients by the trialists.2 We were unable to find significant benefits in most of our analyses. Despite this, we found that complex interventions could benefit older people’s functional ability.Many intervention trials have tested the effectiveness of complex, preventive approaches in older people’s care, but reviews often report effects according to what is believed to be the intervention’s active ingredient. For those involved in programme…
Read Original Article: Patient centred outcomes should be focus of interventions to sustain independence in older people »