The study population included elders (aged 60 and over)of both genders that had a primary diagnosis of degenerative dementia that was made according to validated diagnostic criteria such as DSM-IV or ICD-10 . Where data were limited, studies that involved one group of dementia patients were also considered. Specific studies involving Home Enteral Nutrition (HEN) outcomes in demented patients are rare, but
the retrieved article reference list was also searched focusing on more recent publications. The study selection criteria involved screening the citations by one of the review authors (ALRS).Following screening, the full texts of eligible citations were
assessed for inclusion by the two review authors. Whenever the abstract met the inclusion criteria and the full text was not retrieved, the whole article was ordered to the Federal University Library. If this strategy was not successful, the main author was contacted via e-mail. If any differences of opinion existed, they were resolved by consensus between the authors. For the observational studies, methodological quality
was evaluated using the Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale for Cohort Studies .
A data extraction form was used, which included the following information for each study: number of patients, number in each comparison group (whenever controlled),
enteral route (whether tube feeding was used exclusively or if
the oral route was also considered), follow-up time, survival