Representation of older adults in the late-breaking clinical trials american heart association 2011 scientific sessions

摘要

Increasingly, the practice of medicine has relied on applicable and available evidence to deliver quaEty care. Cardiovascular medicine has led the way using numerous clinical trials as the basis of clinical practice guidelines. However, despite the strong association of aging with the development of cardiovascular disease, randomized clinical trials rarely enroll a substantial proportion of older adults, leading experts to question the applicability of the evidence base to the typical patient with cardiovascular disease (1). We sought to document the inclusion of older adults in contemporary high-profile, recently conducted clinical trial populations in cardiovascular disease and compare the age characteristics of the clinical trials with the age characteristics of the diseases being studied.