Impact of isolation on hospitalised patients who are infectious: systematic review with meta-analysis

Purssell, Edward; Gould, Dinah; Chudleigh, Jane

This review suggests that infectious isolation has a number of negative effects on patients. Because this evidence is comprised of cohort and case-control studies, a claim for a causal relationship cannot be made on this evidence, although the strong and consistent effects across the studies may increase the confidence in this relationship. There are some qualitative data, although more in-depth mixed-methods data where those reporting negative effects are questioned about them would strengthen the evidence on this. In some cases large effect sizes were accompanied by very wide confidence intervals, suggesting that studies were underpowered, thus studies with larger sample sizes would be useful.