Effectiveness of transitional care program in older adults with heart failure: A systematic review and meta-analysis,

In this study, it was aimed to determine the effectiveness of transitional care program in older adults with heart failure. PubMed, CENTRAL, WOS and CINAHL data-bases were searched using "heart failure", "transitional care", "aged", and related terms. This searched was restricted by publications in English from November, 11, 2001 to November, 11, 2021. Heterogeneity was evaluated with the I2 statistic, and the certainty of the evidence was evaluated with the GRADE criteria. In the 7 studies (a total of 880 participants were randomized, including 439 participants in the intervention group and 441 participants in the control group) included in this systematic review and meta-analysis, four of them were "high risk of bias", one of them was "some concerns", and two of them were "low risk of bias". Transitional care programs impacted heart failure knowledge level (MD -1.40, 95% CI -1,92 to -0,88; moderate certanity evidence, I2=0%), self-care maintenance (MD -5.76, 95% CI -9.91 to -1.61; very low certanity evidence, I2=49%), self-care self confidence (MD -16.35, 95% CI -18.68 to-14.01; very low certanity evidence; I2=31%), heart failure related readmissions (RR 0.56, 95% CI 0.47 to 0.70; low certanity evidence; I2=0%), all-cause readmission (RR 0.75, 95% CI 0.64 to 0.87; moderate certanity evidence; I2=0%). The limited number of studies reached in this systematic review and meta-analysis study demonstrates the evidence gap in the literature.