How old is too old?

I’ve been searching for info all week to address the topic of  “data lag” in terms of research, i.e., "How old is too old."  It seems that many nurse researchers subscribe to "greater than 5 years old -- don't use it." 


I consulted the Director of Research and Evidence Based Practice (Rebecca Tart, PhD) at my facility.  Based on the information she provided, I see that I’ve been searching for information to support my perspective that “lots of research that uses an economic analysis perspective is not all that valid today due to the time lag.” Dr. Tart helped expand my thinking on this topic. Her perspective is that “nursing is missing the boat in that much of what is being taught in academic programs is that if research is older than 5 years it shouldn’t be considered as all that useful.” That rang a bell. In some of our prior courses, I’ve lost some points on papers for using references that were greater than 5 years old. She went on to explain that “not everything is researched consistently….sometimes there are years of lag time between published studies on a particular topic.

Dr. Tart pointed me to several relevant articles. Balas’ (2001) states there is a 17-year lag time between research and practice changes. Dr. Tart also pointed out the value of considering the long history of research in a topic such as SIDS.  The SIDS article aptly describes with statistical support the gravity of the problem of researchers discounting "old" data. It also suggests that the US lagged even further behind Europe even when the evidence was substantial.


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