A Cochrane review «Information provision for stroke survivors and their carers»1 «Forster A, Brown L, Smith J et al. Information provision for stroke patients and their caregivers. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2012;11:CD001919. . »1 included 21 studies with a total of 2289 patient and 1290 carer participants. Nine trials evaluated a passive and 12 an active information intervention. Meta-analyses showed a significant effect in favour of the intervention on patient and carer knowledge (SMD 0.29, 95% CI 0.12 to 0.46), carer knowledge (SMD 0.74, 95% CI 0.06 to 1.43), one aspect of patient satisfaction (OR 2.07, 95% CI 1.33 to 3.23), and patient depression scores (MD -0.52, 95% CI -0.93 to -0.10). There was no significant effect on number of cases of anxiety or depression in patients, carer mood or satisfaction, or death. Qualitative analyses found no strong evidence of an effect on other outcomes. Post-hoc subgroup analyses showed that active information had a significantly greater effect than passive information on patient mood but not on other outcomes.
Comment: The quality of evidence is downgraded by inconsistency (heterogeneity in interventions and outcomes).