[Evidence-based information concerning increasing age in German guideline portals: comparison using heart failure as...

The ongoing epidemiological and demographic developments lead to a greater demand for evidence-based information for the practice in health-care provision. Therefore, it was evaluated whether older patients are playing a role in German guidelines, whether there are guidelines on diseases with particular relevance in old age, whether elderly patients are particularly considered in guidelines, and whether the information available in guidelines is easily retrieved. First, an overview is given on portals for guidelines in Germany with free online access. Then, selected results from an analysis of information specifically considering elderly patients of selected registers are presented. There was a lack of information regarding older patients in all guidelines analyzed, apart from the few guidelines specifically addressing old age. Explicit statements explaining the reasons for the lack of information are rare in guidelines. The user of the guidelines, therefore, remains uninformed whether this is because of the lack of available data. From the users' point of view, there should be an online platform providing the complete evidence via shared access. This would clearly improve the overview, thus, facilitating the search for specific issues, e.g., older age and multimorbidity. In addition, there is room for improvement in practical aspects of the use of guidelines, e.g., the standardization of guideline forms and the consolidation of individual guideline portals would clearly assist persons wishing to obtain an overview. Furthermore, most guidelines do not have internal links between content, references, explanation of evidence-based information, and recommendations, which are necessary for effective research.