Table 2

Characteristics of included studies

Study	Country	Participants	Study design	Interventions	Relevant outcomes	Baseline measurements	Concealment of allocation	Attrition bias	Blind outcome assessment	Main results
RCT, randomised controlled trial (including cluster randomised controlled trials); CBA, controlled before/after study. NS, not significant.
Baseline measurements: done = baseline comparability of experimental groups in primary outcome.
Concealment of allocation: done = adequately concealed allocation procedures described.
Attrition bias: done = >80% follow up in all experimental groups.
Blind outcome assessment: done = primary outcome assessment blind to allocation.
Main results: all values refer to proportion of participants with that outcome in each experimental group in the form [intervention] v [control] unless otherwise stated. Significance tests are as reported by authors in original papers.
Hawkins²⁴	US	1148 patients with diabetes and/or hypertension attending primary care clinic	RCT	Pharmacist-led	Hospital admissions and emergency department visits	Done	Not clear	Not done	Not clear	Hospital admissions: 0.16 patients/year v 0.17 patients/year (NS)
										Emergency department visits:
										1.18 patients/year v 1.01 patients/year (NS)
Cummings²³	US	160 ambulatory adults	CBA	Pharmacist-led	Hospital admissions	Done	N/A	Not clear	Not clear	Hospital admissions: 28/61 v 46/68
Thompson³¹	US	152 elderly patients in a skilled nursing facility	CBA	Pharmacist-led	Hospital admissions and number of deaths	Done	N/A	Not clear	Not clear	Hospital admissions: 2.9% v 11.1% (p = 0.06)
										Deaths: 3/67 v 10/72 (p = 0.05)
Kane³⁸	US	9738 nursing home residents	CBA	Health care professional/educational	Hospital admissions and emergency department visits	Done	N/A	Not clear	Not clear	Hospital admissions: a relative decrease from pre to post of 0.69 per 1000 patient days (p<0.05).
										Emergency department visits: a relative decrease from pre to post of 0.9 (NS)
Avorn⁴³	US	823 patients from six stratified pairs of nursing homes	RCT	Health care professional/educational	Formal assessments of mental status, memory, anxiety, depression, behaviour and sleep	Done	Not clear	Not done	Done	Reduction in function in those taking antipsychotics: Mental status 38% v 56% (NS), memory 31% v 54% (p<0.05), anxiety 46% v 35% (NS), depression 56% v 27% (p<0.05), behaviour 45% v 38% (NS), sleep 35% v 25% (NS)Reduction in function in those taking benzodiazepines: Mental status 46% v 27% (NS), memory 62% v 29% (p<0.05), anxiety 23% v 52% (p<0.05), depression 40% v 38% (NS), behaviour 36% v 41% (NS), sleep 56% v 32% (NS)
Vetter⁵²	UK	674 elderly patients of a single general practice	RCT	Intervention to reduce falls	Fall with fracture	Done	Done	Not done	Not clear	Falls with fractures: 5% v 4% (NS)
Zullich⁵⁷	US	155 elderly patients taking benzodiazepines from 10 long term care facilities	ITS	Health care professional/educational	Fall, hospital admission	N/A	N/A	Not done	Not clear	Population risk ratio for falls 0.63 (NS)Population risk ratio for hospital admission 1.38 (NS)
Kimberlin³⁵	US	762 patients using community pharmacies	RCT	Pharmacist-led	Hospital admissions	Not clear	Not clear	Not done	Not clear	Odds of admission not significantly different between groups (numbers not reported)
Wilkinson⁴²	UK	61 patients with depression attending three general practices	RCT	Health care professional/educational	Adverse events	Done	Done	Not done	Not done	Adverse events/number of patients: 46/14 v 37/19 (NS)
Knowlton³⁶	US	18 pharmacies	RCT	Pharmacist-led	Hospital admissions	Not done	Not clear	Not clear	Not done	Hospital admission rates per month: 3.95% v 3.93% (NS)
Tinetti⁵⁰	US	301 elderly primary care patients	RCT	Intervention to reduce falls	Falls, hospital admissions, deaths	Done	Not clear	Done	Done	Falls: 35% v 47% (p = 0.04)Hospital admissions: 21% v 24% (NS)Deaths: 5% v 3% (NS)
Wagner⁵³	US	1559 elderly primary care patients	RCT	Intervention to reduce falls	Falls resulting in injury, falls resulting in hospital admission	Done	Not clear	Done	Not done	Falls resulting in injury: 13.4% v 10.1% (NS)Falls resulting in hospital admission: 0.6% v 0.9% (NS)
Kendrick⁴⁴	UK	440 patients with long term mental health problems from 16 general practices	RCT	Health care professional/educational	Admissions	Done	Not clear	Done	Not clear	Admissions with physical problems: 14.2% v 16.1% (NS)
Hanlon³⁴	US	208 primary care patients on five or more regular medications	RCT	Pharmacist-led	Adverse drug events	Done	Not clear	Done	Done	Adverse drug events: 30.2% v 40.0% (NS)
Carter⁴⁵	Australia	658 elderly primary care patients	RCT	Intervention to reduce falls	Fall resulting in injury	Done	Not clear	Not done	Not clear	Fall resulting in injury: 10.4% v 14.3% (NS)
DeSonnaville⁴¹	Netherlands	505 primary care patients with type II diabetes	CBA	Health care professional/educational	Episodes of hypoglycaemia	Not done	N/A	Not done	Not clear	Episodes of hypoglycaemia/patient/year: 0.014 v 0 (NS)
Ray⁴⁹	US	499 residents of seven matched pairs of nursing homes	RCT	Intervention to reduce falls	Falls, mortality	Done	Done	Done	Done	Incidence rate of injurious falls (per 100 person years): 13.7 v 19.9 (NS)Mortality rate (per 100 person years): 23.0 v 17.3 (NS)
Aubert³⁷	US	138 primary care patients with diabetes	RCT	Health care professional/educational	Hospital admissions, emergency department visits, severe low blood glucose events	Done	Not clear	Not done	Not clear	Hospital admission rate: 6% v 6% (NS)Emergency department visits: 2% v 6% (NS)Severe low blood glucose events (increase from baseline): 3.1% v 2.9% (NS)
Lai²⁷	US	874 primary care patients	CBA	Pharmacist-led	Hospital admissions, emergency department visits	Done	N/A	Done	Done	Mean number of hospital admissions: 0.1 v 0.2 (NS)Mean number of emergency room visits: 0.06 v 0.06 (NS)
McCombs²⁹	US	6000 patients using nine Kaiser Permanente pharmacies	RCT	Pharmacist-led	Hospital admissions	Done	Not clear	Done	Done	Kaiser Permanente model associated with 3.3% lower likelihood of hospital admission
Campbell⁵⁴	NZ	93 elderly primary care patients using hypnotics	RCT	Intervention to reduce falls	Falls	Done	Done	Not done	Done	Falls per person years: 0.52 v 1.16 (p<0.05)
Coleman⁴⁶	US	169 elderly primary care patients	RCT	Health care professional/educational	Falls, hospital admissions, emergency department visits	Done	Not clear	Not done	Not clear	Fall in last 12 months: 43.5% v 35.6% (NS)Mean hospital admissions/year: 0.58 v 0.59 (NS)Mean emergency department visits/year: 0.23 v 0.27 (NS)
Bond²¹	UK	3074 primary care patients	RCT	Pharmacist-led	Adverse drug reactions, hospital admissions, mortality	Not done	Done	Not clear	Not clear	Adverse drug reactions: 8.3% v 6.7% (NS)Hospital admissions: 6.0% v 5.7% (NS)Mortality rate: 3.6% v 3.8% (NS)
Furniss³³	UK	330 residents of seven matched pairs of nursing homes	RCT	Pharmacist-led	Formal assessments of cognitive function, depression and behaviour and deaths	Done	Not clear	Done	Not clear	Mean difference in cognitive function score: 1.6 in favour of control (NS)Mean difference in depression score: −0.75 in favour of intervention (NS)Mean difference in behaviour score: −2.2 in favour of control (p = 0.02)Deaths: 4 v 14 (p = 0.03)
Kempton⁵⁵	Australia	3600 elderly primary care patients	CBA	Intervention to reduce falls	Falls leading to hospital admission	Done	N/A	Not done	Not done	Fall related hospital admission rate ratio: 0.8 (p<0.01)
Malone²⁸	US	1054 primary care patients	RCT	Pharmacist-led	Hospital admissions	Done	Done	Done	Done	Mean increase in hospital admission rates over study period: 0.13 v 0.19 (NS)
McMurdo⁴⁸	UK	133 elderly patients from nine residential homes	RCT	Intervention to reduce falls	Falls	Not clear	Not clear	Not done	Done	Falls per person per week: 0.06 v 0.07 (NS)
Piette³⁹	US	280 primary care patients with diabetes	RCT	Health care professional/educational	Hospital admissions, emergency department visits.	Done	Done	Done	Not done	Hospital admissions: 24% v 23% (NS)Emergency department visits: 48% v 40% (NS)
Poulstrup⁵⁶	Denmark	26221 elderly primary care patients	CBA	Intervention to reduce falls	Fractures	Done	N/A	Not clear	Not clear	Reduction in fractures in intervention group compared to control: 14% (NS)
Van Haastregt⁵¹	Netherlands	316 elderly primary care patients	RCT	Intervention to reduce falls	Falls	Done	Not clear	Done	Not clear	Injurious falls: 28% v 22% (NS)Falls resulting in medical care: 18% v 12% (NS)
Bernsten²⁰	Multi-centre (Europe)	2454 elderly primary care patients	RCT	Pharmacist-led	Hospital admissions	Not done	Not clear	Not done	Not clear	Hospital admissions: 35.6% v 40.4% (NS)
Herborg²⁵	Denmark	500 patients obtaining asthma medication from community pharmacists	CBA	Pharmacist-led	Hospital admissions, emergency department visits	Done	N/A	Done	Not clear	Hospital admissions per patient: 0.019 v 0.058 (not tested)Emergency department visits: 0.019 v 0.021 (not tested)
Krska²⁶	UK	332 elderly primary care patients from six general practices	RCT	Pharmacist-led	Hospital admissions, pharmaceutical care issues	Done	Not clear	Done	Not clear	Hospital admissions: 12 v 13 (not tested)Potential or suspected adverse drug reactions resolved: 84.3% v 57.8% (p<0.0001)
Olivarius⁴⁰	Denmark	1316 primary care patients with diabetes	RCT	Health care professional/educational	Hospital admissions, severe hypoglycaemic episodes	Done	Not clear	Not done	Not done	Median number of hospital admissions since diagnosis: 1 v 1 (NS)Proportion of participants with an episode of severe hypoglycaemia since diagnosis: 4% v 4% (NS)
Roberts³⁰	Australia	3230 residents of 55 nursing homes	RCT	Pharmacist-led	Hospital admissions, mortality	Not clear	Done	Not done	Not clear	Difference in mean percentage hospital admission rate pre/post study: 1.3 v −16.9 (NS)Adjusted mortality rates per 100 person years: 27.2 v 31.7 (NS)
Zermansky³²	UK	1188 elderly primary care patients	RCT	Pharmacist -led	Hospital admissions	Done	Not clear	Done	Not clear	Proportion admitted to hospital: 19% v 17% (NS)
Jensen⁴⁷	Sweden	439 elderly patients from nine residential care facilities	RCT	Intervention to reduce falls	Falls	Done	Not clear	Done	Not done	Falls: 44% v 56% (p<0.05)
Bouvy²²	Netherlands	152 patients with heart failure	RCT	Pharmacist-led	Hospital admissions	Done	Done	Done	Not done	Hospital admissions: 32/74 v 42/78 (p = 0.4)