Community Holistic Interventions for Multimorbidity in older people: Evaluation of the evidence (CHIME). Is performing a scoping review useful after recent Cochrane review?

Abstract

Background: There are a number of different interventions used in different regions in the country with the aim of improving management of patients with multimorbidity. However, there is limited evidence for the effectiveness many of these. A Cochrane review was recently published (June 2017) looking at community interventions for multimorbidity, for any age group.

Method: We performed a scoping review using the methodology described by Arksey & O'Malley, including considering all included and excluded studies from the systematic review performed for Cochrane. The aim of our review, funded by Liverpool CCG is to help in the design of a controlled trial in the community to be led by one of the co-authors who is a geriatrician in the region.

Results: Although our literature search used a similar search strategy to that of the Cochrane review, the 8 studies we found using our scoping methodology only included 1 of their 18 included studies, and owing to differences in our definitions of community, 1 additional study that they had excluded.

Conclusion: The addition of an inclusion criterion of studies that reported data for any defined elderly population with an age range from at least 60 years old, was the main reason for our included studies differing greatly from the Cochrane review. When considering a specific population, it can be worth reviewing whether previous systematic reviews are relevant or should be refined for the particular population of interest.