For which clinical rules do doctors want decision support, and why? A survey of Dutch general practitioners.

Despite the promise of decision support for improving care, alerts are often overridden or ignored. We evaluated Dutch general practitioners' intention to accept decision support in a proposed implementation based on clinical rules regarding care for elderly patients, and their reasons for wanting or not wanting support. We developed a survey based on literature and structured interviews and distributed it to all doctors who would receive support in the proposed implementation (n = 43), of which 65 percent responded.

Estimating the Time to Benefit for Preventive Drugs with the Statistical Process Control Method: An Example with Alendronate.

Background: For physicians dealing with patients with a limited life expectancy, knowing the time to benefit (TTB) of preventive medication is essential to support treatment decisions.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the usefulness of statistical process control (SPC) for determining the TTB in relation to fracture risk with alendronate versus placebo in postmenopausal women.

Methods: We performed a post hoc analysis of the Fracture Intervention Trial (FIT), a randomized, controlled trial that investigated the effect of alendronate versus placebo on fracture risk in postmenopausal women.

Comorbidity and favorable neurologic outcome after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in patients of 70 years and older.

Introduction: Advanced age is reported to be associated with lower survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). We aimed to establish survival rate and neurological outcome at hospital discharge after OHCA in older patients and evaluated whether pre-OHCA comorbidity was associated with favorable neurologic outcome.

Methods: From a prospective registry of all cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) attempts after OHCA, we established survival in 1332 patients aged ≥ 70 years in whom resuscitation with non-traumatic etiology was attempted in 2009-2011.

Reviews of individual patient data (IPD) are useful for geriatrics: an overview of available IPD reviews.

Objectives: To determine how many individual patient data (IPD) reviews that included older people were available in MEDLINE and whether the effectiveness of treatments differed between older and younger individuals.

Design: Overview of IPD reviews.

Setting: A MEDLINE search was conducted for IPD reviews of randomized controlled trials published before July 2012.

The chance of survival and the functional outcome after in-hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation in older people: a systematic review.

Background: physicians are frequently confronted with the question whether cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is a medically appropriate treatment for older people. For physicians, patients and relatives, it is important to know the chance of survival and the functional outcome after CPR in order to make an informed decision.

Methods: a systematic search was performed in MEDLINE, Embase and Cochrane up to November 2012.

Underrepresentation of patients with pre-existing cognitive impairment in pharmaceutical trials on prophylactic or therapeutic treatments for delirium: a systematic review.

Objective: Representation of hospitalized patients with pre-existing cognitive impairment in pharmaceutical delirium trials is important because these patients are at high risk for developing delirium. The aim of this systematic review is to investigate whether patients with cognitive impairment were included in studies on pharmacological prophylaxis or treatment of delirium and to explore the motivations for their exclusion (if they were excluded).

Study Design: This study was a systematic review.

Acetaminophen for self-reported sleep problems in an elderly population (ASLEEP): study protocol of a randomized placebo-controlled double-blind trial.

Background: The prevalence of sleep disorders increases with age. Sleep disorders may have serious health implications and may be related to serious underlying diseases. Many older people use hypnotics, like benzodiazepines, although these medications have serious side effects and often lead to habituation.

Pharmacological treatment of dementia: a scoping review of systematic reviews.

Background: Until now, multiple reviews on the pharmacological treatment of dementia have been published.

Methods: We performed a scoping review to summarize research findings and to identify gaps in the existing literature. We searched the literature and assessed the risk of bias of the included reviews.

Pre-arrest predictors of survival after resuscitation from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in the elderly a systematic review.

Background: To enable older people to make decisions about the appropriateness of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), information is needed about the predictive value of pre-arrest factors such as comorbidity, functional and cognitive status on survival and quality of life of survivors. We systematically reviewed the literature to identify pre-arrest predictors for survival, quality of life and functional outcomes after out-of-hospital (OHC) CPR in the elderly.

Methods: We searched MEDLINE (through May 2011) and included studies that described adults aged 70 years and over needing CPR after OHC cardiac arrest.

Search filters to identify geriatric medicine in Medline.

Objectives: To create user-friendly search filters with high sensitivity, specificity, and precision to identify articles on geriatric medicine in Medline.

Design: A diagnostic test assessment framework was used. A reference set of 2255 articles was created by hand-searching 22 biomedical journals in Medline, and each article was labeled as 'relevant', 'not relevant', or 'possibly relevant' for geriatric medicine.