Review collection methods

To identify systematic reviews of relevance to aged care, we have set up broad search strategies in the MEDLINE and CINAHL databases. These strategies contain a wide range of search terms describing both residential and home-based aged care including:

• Residential aged care
• Nursing home(s)
• Long-term care
• Home care
• Care package(s) 
• Respite.

This search on aged care is combined with search terms for ‘systematic review’ to restrict the results to this type of research only. Each database automatically runs the search strategy on the first of each month, sending results to ARIIA staff in an email. Each review is then checked to see if it:

• Is relevant to the work performed by the aged care workforce
• Reports multiple studies 
• Describes the search strategies used to find these studies
• Followed strict processes for reviewing each study for inclusion and quality. 

Unpublished systematic reviews (those not published in journal format but available on organisational websites) are sourced by conducting this Google search at the start of each month.