In-hospital interventions for reducing readmissions to acute care for adults aged 65 and over: An umbrella review

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this umbrella review was to synthesize existing systematic review evidence on the effectiveness of in-hospital interventions to prevent or reduce avoidable hospital readmissions in older people (≥65 years old).

Data sources: A comprehensive database search was conducted in May 2019 through MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, the JBI Database of Systematic Reviews, DARE and Epistemonikos.

Study selection: Systematic reviews and other research syntheses, including meta-analyses, exploring the effectiveness of hospital-based interventions to reduce readmissions for people aged 65 and older, irrespective of gender or clinical condition, were included for review. If a review did not exclusively focus on this age group, but data for this group could be extracted, then it was considered for inclusion. Only reviews in English were included.

Data extraction: Data extracted for each review included the review objective, participant details, setting and context, type of studies, intervention type, comparator and findings.

Results of data synthesis: Twenty-nine reviews were included for analysis. Within these reviews, 11 intervention types were examined: in-hospital medication review, discharge planning, comprehensive geriatric assessment, early recovery after surgery, transitional care, interdisciplinary team care, in-hospital nutrition therapy, acute care geriatric units, in-hospital exercise, postfall interventions for people with dementia and emergency department-based palliative care. Except for discharge planning and transitional care, none of the interventions significantly reduced readmissions among older adults.

Conclusion: There is limited evidence to support the effectiveness of existing hospital-based interventions to reduce readmissions for people aged 65 and older.

Keywords: aged; elderly; hospitals; interventions; patient readmission; review.