Searching for evidence-based geriatrics: Tips and tools for finding evidence in the medical literature

Introduction: Information to treat geriatric patients evidence-based is hard to find. Recently, a sensitive and a specific search filter to improve searching for literature relevant to geriatric medicine were developed in a research setting. The aim of this study is to determine whether these filters are able to find the articles considered relevant for daily clinical practice by young geriatricians. Materials and methods: For this study, we included references identified for lectures of the session of the 9th European Academy for Medicine of Ageing (EAMA) course 2011 about "Ageing and functionality" and lectures of the session entitled "Evidence-Based Medicine" (EBM). Relevant references were combined with the specific and sensitive search strategy in MEDLINE. Results: Of the 50 relevant articles for the course "Functionality", the sensitive filter identified 46 (92%); the specific filter 39 (78%). Of the 92 relevant references on "EBM", the sensitive filter retrieved 80 (87%), the specific filter 59 (64%). Articles not identified by the sensitive filter, were mostly missed because the filter specifically search for relevant terms mentioned in title or abstract. Conclusion: Geriatricians can be confident that the majority of relevant articles will be retrieved by the sensitive search filter. Searching for literature will be simplified and made more efficient by using a search filter. By demonstrating the pros of the filter we hope to stimulate implementation in daily clinical practice, so our elderly population is as much treated by the most up to date available evidence as possible.