Home intravenous anti-infective therapy: a systematic overview of the literature

• Author / Creator

  Berry, Catherine P.

• The purpose of this systematic review was to provide a valid overview of the best scientific evidence available regarding the physiological and psychosocial outcomes of home intravenous anti-infective therapy (HIVAT). More than eleven hundred potentially relevant studies were identified from a variety of sources including electronic databases, reference lists of retrieved articles, key informants, and the table of contents of key journals. Twenty-five of the studies measured the physiological and/or psychosocial outcomes of HIVAT on the patient and/or his or her informal caregiver(s) using a comparison group or control group and so were selected for inclusion. Validity criteria included design and allocation, inclusion and follow-up, control of extraneous variables, intervention, data collection, and data analysis. Using these criteria, eight studies were judged to be strong, eight moderate, and ten weak. At the time of validity testing, data relating to the physiological and/or psychosocial outcomes of HIVAT were extracted. Due to important differences in study participants, interventions, outcomes and designs, the extracted data were summarized but not statistically combined. The results suggest that HIVAT research is in its infancy and there is little scientific evidence to guide the use of HIVAT for children and adults with an infectious disease. Rigorously designed studies of sufficient size and breadth of outcome measures are needed to examine the physiological and psychosocial outcomes of HIVAT particularly among high-risk groups

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Intravenous therapy -- Evaluation
  • Home care services -- Evaluation
  • Infection -- Treatment -- Evaluation
  • Infection -- Patients -- Home care -- Evaluation

• Graduation date

  Fall 2001

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Nursing

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-dz0s-gk86

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.