Evidence Mapping of Clinical Practice Guidelines Recommendations and Quality for Nutritional Management in Dementia

ABSTRACT

Aim

This study aimed to systematically review Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs) for nutritional management of dementia and use evidence mapping to highlight research trends and identify gaps to inform future research.

Design

A systematic review of guidelines using the PRISMA statement.

Methods

Systematically collect literature on dementia management CPGs from PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and guideline databases. Extract basic information, recommendations, methodological quality and reporting quality of the CPGs. Four researchers independently evaluated eligible CPGs using the AGREE II instrument and the RIGHT checklist. All recommendations from the CPGs were summarised and analysed, and evidence mapping bubble charts were created in Excel.

Results

After excluding 5541 records, 10 CPGs were eventually proved eligible, 5 of which were of high quality and 5 of high quality. With 10 CPGs that combined 18 recommendations. The nutrition screening and assessment were summarised on the basis of the dementia recommendations for 4 major items, 7 items on nutritional interventions, 5 items on caring and 2 on education.

Conclusion

This review provides an evidence map and offers new perspectives on CPGs for nutritional management in dementia. However, there are improvements to the included CPGs, but most CPGs have a number of key recommendations that can help guide clinical practice.

Relevance to Clinical Practice

The currently available guidelines on dementia nutritional management have room for methodological improvement.