Efficacy of sustained knowledge translation (KT) interventions in chronic disease management in older adults: systematic review and meta-analysis of complex interventions

Table 3 Summary of KT intervention characteristics across study arms

KT intervention characteristics	No. (%) per study arms in included RCTs (N = 327)
Group target
Patients	140 (42.8)
Healthcare providers	68 (20.8)
Patients and healthcare providers	36 (11)
Caregivers	16 (4.9)
Patients and caregivers	10 (3.1)
Patients, caregivers and healthcare providers	4 (1.2)
Caregivers and healthcare providers	1 (0.3)
Not targeted population reported	52 (15.9)
KT intervention complexity
Single	139 (42.5)
Multifactorial^a	60 (18.3)
Multiple^a	52 (15.9)
Not applicable^c	42 (12.8)
Not reported	34 (10.4)
KT intervention delivery
In-person	86 (26.3)
Indirect^b	23 (7)
In-person and over telephone	21 (6.4)
In-person or telephone	9 (2.8)
In-person and telemonitoring	2 (0.6)
Telephone	2 (0.6)
Not applicable^c	56 (17.1)
Not reported	128 (39.1)
KT intervention duration
12–14.9 months	119 (36.4)
15–20.9 months	26 (8)
21–36 months	36 (11)
Not applicable^c	111 (33.9)
Not reported	35 (10.7)
Provider of KT intervention
Physician and/or nurse alone	110 (33.6)
Physician/nurse + clinical staff	41 (12.5)
Clinical staff	18 (5.5)
Non-clinical staff	8 (2.4)
Physician/nurse + non-clinical staff	1 (0.3)
Not applicable^d	99 (30.2)
Not reported	50 (15.3)
Tailoring of KT intervention
Not tailored intervention	190 (58.1)
Tailored intervention	60 (18.3)
Not applicable^e	78 (23.9)

^a‘Multiple’ refers to multi-component interventions, where every patient received the same, fixed set of intervention components, whereas and ‘multifactorial’ refers to different sets of intervention components that the patients received, which were tailored to their clinical profile
^bIndirect delivery refers to interventions not delivered face-to-face, such as home exercise, medication and self-management
^cNot applicable refers to arms that are control group, not receiving a KT intervention
^dNot applicable refers to providers delivering KT interventions, which may include treatment arms targeting patients without a clinical component (e.g. receiving educational material, self-management), arms targeting healthcare workers, or arms targeting caregivers. Some interventions without a provider are tailored (e.g. self-management, medication) to while others are not tailored (e.g. web-based education) to a patient’s needs
^eNot applicable refers to all arms with healthcare and caregiver population, or all arms targeting patients but without a clinical component (i.e. only have a KT intervention, such as education material)

ISSN: 1741-7015