Click HERE to access the full resource

Keeping abreast of the latest evidence in older adult care is increasingly difficult, therefore comprehensive, objective, and critical assessment of the published literature is essential for effective health and social care. This is the rationale that has underpinned systematic literature review and meta-analysis since it was first conceived almost 100 years ago.

At its best, evidence synthesis offers something that is more than the sum of the included papers. This approach has informed many of the seminal and practice changing papers in geriatric medicine, including reviews demonstrating the value of Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA), the utility of dedicated stroke unit care and the effectiveness of multicomponent interventions to prevent delirium.

Age and Ageing recognises the value of evidence synthesis and is a strong supporter of this method. We have a dedicated systematic review section in the journal, senior members of the editorial board have expertise in evidence synthesis, and previous papers have described best practice in systematic reviews of older adult research.

In this collection, we have selected evidence synthesis papers published in the journal in the last few years. Choosing the final list was difficult as we had so many interesting and important reviews to pick from. We opted to select papers that were exemplars of differing methodological approaches to evidence synthesis, from classical pair-wise meta-analysis, through to newer methods such as test accuracy and qualitative synthesis, encompassing a range of topics relevant to health and social care for older people.

For those wishing to learn more about evidence synthesis techniques we also offer two companion articles:

1. New Horizons in Evidence Synthesis for Older Adults.
2. Seeing the forest (plot) for the trees – the importance of evidence synthesis in older adult care.

Prof Terry Quinn, University of Glasgow and NIHR Evidence Synthesis Group, UK

Prof Susan Shenkin, Usher Institute, UK.