Unjustified exclusion of elderly people from studies submitted to research ethics committee for approval: descriptive study

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Abstract
Ageism in clinical practice1 and published research2 is well recognised. We were interested in whether research protocols submitted to the local research ethics committee contained unjustified upper age limits and how the committee dealt with this. We reviewed all studies submitted to Bro Taf local research ethics committee in the first seven months of 1999 to determine whether any upper age limits were justified and whether the committee had commented on such age restrictions. We then made a judgment on the appropriateness of the upper age limit. Of 225 studies whose protocols were reviewed, 65 were on topics or conditions that automatically excluded elderly people. Five studies specifically concerned elderly people and had a lower age limit but no upper limit. Of the remaining 155, 90 (58%) had an upper age limit, which …