Articles

Panic disorder and incident coronary heart disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis protocol

The clinical presentation of panic disorder and panic attack overlaps many symptoms typically experienced in coronary heart disease (CHD). Etiological links between panic disorder and CHD are controversial and...

Authors: Phillip J Tully, Gary A Wittert, Deborah A Turnbull, John F Beltrame, John D Horowitz, Suzanne Cosh and Harald Baumeister

Treatment of vaginal candidiasis for the prevention of preterm birth: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Recognition that ascending infection leads to preterm birth has led to a number of studies that have evaluated the treatment of vaginal infections in pregnancy to reduce preterm birth rates. However, the role ...

Authors: Christine L Roberts, Charles S Algert, Kristen L Rickard and Jonathan M Morris

Protocol for a systematic review of screening tools for fear of recurrent illness in common life-threatening diseases

A myocardial infarction (MI) (‘heart attack’) can be intensely stressful, and the impact of this event can leave patients with clinically significant post-MI stress symptoms. Untreated stress can make heart di...

Authors: Jenny Jones, Paul Kane, Rob Polson, Stephen J Leslie, Nicholas J Hulbert-Williams, Sébastien Simard, Gozde Ozakinci and Gill Hubbard

Effectiveness and economic evaluation of chiropractic care for the treatment of low back pain: a systematic review protocol

Chiropractic care is a common treatment for low back pain (LBP). Previous studies have failed to clarify the relative cost-effectiveness of chiropractic care in comparison with other commonly used approaches b...

Authors: Marc-André Blanchette, André Bussières, Mette Jensen Stochkendahl, Jill Boruff and Pamela Harrison

Role of preoperative intravenous iron therapy to correct anemia before major surgery: study protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

Preoperative anemia is a common and potentially serious hematological problem in elective surgery and increases the risk for perioperative red blood cell (RBC) transfusion. Transfusion is associated with posto...

Authors: Abdelsalam M Elhenawy, Steven R Meyer, Sean M Bagshaw, Roderick G MacArthur and Linda J Carroll

Patient navigators for people with chronic disease: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

Individuals with chronic diseases may have difficulty optimizing their health and getting the care they need due to a combination of patient, provider, and health system level barriers. Patient navigator progr...

Authors: Elizabeth Kelly, Noah Ivers, Rami Zawi, Lianne Barnieh, Braden Manns, Diane L Lorenzetti, David Nicholas, Marcello Tonelli, Brenda Hemmelgarn, Richard Lewanczuk, Alun Edwards, Ted Braun and Kerry A McBrien

The knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of carers (parents, guardians, healthcare practitioners, crèche workers) around fever and febrile illness in children aged 5 years and under: protocol for a qualitative systematic review

Many parents consider fever a disease in itself and feel disempowered when their child is ill. Numerous guidelines have been produced; however, their target audience remains healthcare professionals and not ca...

Authors: Maria Kelly, Laura J Sahm, Frances Shiely, Ronan O’Sullivan, Maria Brenner, Philip Larkin and Suzanne McCarthy

Rapid review programs to support health care and policy decision making: a descriptive analysis of processes and methods

Health care decision makers often need to make decisions in limited timeframes and cannot await the completion of a full evidence review. Rapid reviews (RRs), utilizing streamlined systematic review methods, a...

Authors: Julie Polisena, Chantelle Garritty, Chris Kamel, Adrienne Stevens and Ahmed M Abou-Setta

Developing a rapid-response program for health system decision-makers in Canada: findings from an issue brief and stakeholder dialogue

There is currently no mechanism in place outside of government to provide rapid syntheses of the best available research evidence about problems, options and/or implementation considerations related to a speci...

Authors: Michael G Wilson, John N Lavis and Francois-Pierre Gauvin

Quantifying the risk of error when interpreting funnel plots

Funnel plots are widely used to investigate possible publication bias in meta-analyses. There has, however, been little formal assessment of whether a visual inspection of a funnel plot is sufficient to identi...

Authors: Mark Simmonds

Should we search Chinese biomedical databases when performing systematic reviews?

Chinese biomedical databases contain a large number of publications available to systematic reviewers, but it is unclear whether they are used for synthesizing the available evidence.

Authors: Jérémie F Cohen, Daniël A Korevaar, Junfeng Wang, René Spijker and Patrick M Bossuyt

Effectiveness of interventions to reduce indoor air pollution and/or improve health in homes using solid fuel in lower and middle income countries: protocol for a systematic review

Indoor air pollution (IAP) interventions are widely promoted as a means of reducing indoor air pollution/health from solid fuel use; and research addressing impact of these interventions has increased substant...

Authors: Reginald Quansah, Caroline A Ochieng, Sean Semple, Sanjar Juvekar, Jacques Emina, Frederick Ato Armah and Isaac Luginaah

The safety and efficacy of vortioxetine for acute treatment of major depressive disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Vortioxetine is the first mixed serotonin agonist and antagonist antidepressant approved in the US. We sought to evaluate all published and unpublished data available to determine the efficacy and harms of vor...

Authors: Amanda S Meeker, Megan C Herink, Dean G Haxby and Daniel M Hartung

The effect of antenatal education in small classes on obstetric and psycho-social outcomes - a systematic review

The aims of antenatal education are broad and encompass outcomes related to pregnancy, birth, and parenthood. Both form and content of antenatal education have changed over time without evidence of effects on ...

Authors: Carina Sjöberg Brixval, Solveig Forberg Axelsen, Stine Glenstrup Lauemøller, Stig Krøger Andersen, Pernille Due and Vibeke Koushede

The pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children and adolescents: protocol for a systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders of children and adolescents, with a significant impact on health services and the community in terms of ec...

Authors: Ferrán Catalá-López, Brian Hutton, Amparo Núñez-Beltrán, Alain D Mayhew, Matthew J Page, Manuel Ridao, Aurelio Tobías, Miguel A Catalá, Rafael Tabarés-Seisdedos and David Moher

Nutritional vitamin D supplementation and health-related outcomes in hemodialysis patients: a protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in hemodialysis patients is high. While most hemodialysis patients are treated with activated vitamin D (1,25[OH]₂D) to prevent renal osteodystrophy, clinical practices of t...

Authors: Anita Mehrotra, Wai-Yin Leung and Tannia Joson

Thanks to all those who reviewed for Systematic Reviews in 2014

A peer-reviewed journal would not survive without the generous time and insightful comments of the reviewers, whose efforts often go unrecognized. Although final decisions are always editorial, they are greatl...

Authors: David Moher, Paul Shekelle and Lesley A Stewart

Correlates, determinants, and effectiveness of childcare educators’ practices and behaviours on preschoolers’ physical activity and eating behaviours: a systematic review protocol

Worldwide, approximately 12% of children under the age of 5 are either overweight or obese. As many young children spend 30 h or more per week in childcare centres with childcare educators. Targeting childcare...

Authors: Stéphanie Ward, Mathieu Bélanger, Denise Donovan, Amanda Horsman and Natalie Carrier

Impact of interventions to reduce sugar-sweetened beverage intake in children and adults: a protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

Sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) have been stressed as relevant targets of public health interventions considering the negative outcomes derived from their excessive intake. Though the evidence from published ...

Authors: Elisa J Vargas-Garcia, Charlotte EL Evans and Janet E Cade

Mentorship in nursing academia: a systematic review protocol

Mentorship is perceived as vital to attracting, training, and retaining nursing faculty members and to maintaining high-quality education programs. While there is emerging evidence to support the value of ment...

Authors: Lorelli Nowell, Deborah E White, Kelly Mrklas and Jill M Norris

Health state utility values for diabetic retinopathy: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

People with diabetic retinopathy tend to have lower levels of health-related quality of life than individuals with no retinopathy. Strategies for screening and treatment have been shown to be cost-effective. I...

Authors: Christopher J Sampson, Jonathan C Tosh, Christopher P Cheyne, Deborah Broadbent and Marilyn James

Immigrant women’s experiences of maternity-care services in Canada: a systematic review using a narrative synthesis

Canada’s diverse society and its statutory commitment to multiculturalism means that a synthesis of knowledge related to the healthcare experiences of immigrants is essential to realise the health potential fo...

Authors: Gina MA Higginbottom, Myfanwy Morgan, Mirande Alexandre, Yvonne Chiu, Joan Forgeron, Deb Kocay and Rubina Barolia

Meta-analysis of test accuracy studies: an exploratory method for investigating the impact of missing thresholds

Primary studies examining the accuracy of a continuous test evaluate its sensitivity and specificity at one or more thresholds. Meta-analysts then usually perform a separate meta-analysis for each threshold. H...

Authors: Richard D Riley, Ikhlaaq Ahmed, Joie Ensor, Yemisi Takwoingi, Amanda Kirkham, R Katie Morris, J Pieter Noordzij and Jonathan J Deeks

A systematic review protocol for measuring comorbidity in inpatient rehabilitation for non-traumatic brain injury

Comorbidity can affect health-care utilization and outcomes, and the results and interpretation of risk adjustment studies that attempt to predict rehabilitation utilization and outcomes are influenced by the ...

Authors: Wayne Khuu, Vincy Chan and Angela Colantonio

User-centered design and the development of patient decision aids: protocol for a systematic review

Providing patient-centered care requires that patients partner in their personal health-care decisions to the full extent desired. Patient decision aids facilitate processes of shared decision-making between p...

Authors: Holly O Witteman, Selma Chipenda Dansokho, Heather Colquhoun, Angela Coulter, Michèle Dugas, Angela Fagerlin, Anik MC Giguere, Sholom Glouberman, Lynne Haslett, Aubri Hoffman, Noah Ivers, France Légaré, Jean Légaré, Carrie Levin, Karli Lopez, Victor M Montori…

PCR-based specific techniques used for detecting the most important pathogens on strawberry: a systematic review

Strawberry diseases are a major limiting factor that severely impact plant agronomic performance. Regarding limitations of traditional techniques for detection of pathogens, researchers have developed specific...

Authors: Seyed Mahyar Mirmajlessi, Marialaura Destefanis, Richard Alexander Gottsberger, Marika Mänd and Evelin Loit

An evaluation of methods used to teach quality improvement to undergraduate healthcare students to inform curriculum development within preregistration nurse education: a protocol for systematic review and narrative synthesis

Despite criticism, quality improvement (QI) continues to drive political and educational priorities within health care. Until recently, QI educational interventions have varied, targeting mainly postgraduates,...

Authors: Lorraine Armstrong, William Lauder and Ashley Shepherd

Methods of a multi-faceted rapid knowledge synthesis project to inform the implementation of a new health service model: Collaborative Emergency Centres

The aim of this rapid knowledge synthesis was to provide relevant research evidence to inform the implementation of a new health service in Nova Scotia, Canada: Collaborative Emergency Centres (CECs). CECs pro...

Authors: Jill A Hayden, Lara Killian, Austin Zygmunt, Jessica Babineau, Ruth Martin-Misener, Jan L Jensen and Alix J Carter

Better duplicate detection for systematic reviewers: evaluation of Systematic Review Assistant-Deduplication Module

A major problem arising from searching across bibliographic databases is the retrieval of duplicate citations. Removing such duplicates is an essential task to ensure systematic reviewers do not waste time scr...

Authors: John Rathbone, Matt Carter, Tammy Hoffmann and Paul Glasziou

Using text mining for study identification in systematic reviews: a systematic review of current approaches

The large and growing number of published studies, and their increasing rate of publication, makes the task of identifying relevant studies in an unbiased way for inclusion in systematic reviews both complex a...

Authors: Alison O’Mara-Eves, James Thomas, John McNaught, Makoto Miwa and Sophia Ananiadou

Reviews: Rapid! Rapid! Rapid! …and systematic

Authors: Holger J Schünemann and Lorenzo Moja

E-health physical activity interventions and moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity levels among working-age women: a systematic review protocol

The rapid pace of modern life requires working-age women to juggle occupational, family, and social demands. Despite the large numbers of working-age women in developed countries and the proven benefits of reg...

Authors: Jennifer L Reed, Stephanie A Prince, Christie A Cole, Kara A Nerenberg, Swapnil Hiremath, Heather E Tulloch, J George Fodor, Agnieszka Szczotka, Lisa A McDonnell, Kerri-Anne Mullen, Andrew L Pipe and Robert D Reid

Weight gain, overweight and obesity in solid organ transplantation—a study protocol for a systematic literature review

Overweight and obesity, which have a substantial impact on health in the general population, have similar prevalence in solid organ transplant recipients but carry even more serious ramifications. As this grou...

Authors: Sonja Beckmann, Nataša Ivanović, Gerda Drent, Todd Ruppar and Sabina De Geest

Preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis protocols (PRISMA-P) 2015 statement

Systematic reviews should build on a protocol that describes the rationale, hypothesis, and planned methods of the review; few reviews report whether a protocol exists. Detailed, well-described protocols can f...

Authors: David Moher, Larissa Shamseer, Mike Clarke, Davina Ghersi, Alessandro Liberati, Mark Petticrew, Paul Shekelle and Lesley A Stewart

Recovering the raw data behind a non-parametric survival curve

Researchers often wish to carry out additional calculations or analyses using the survival data from one or more studies of other authors. When it is not possible to obtain the raw data directly, reconstructio...

Authors: Zhihui Liu, Benjamin Rich and James A Hanley

Systematic reviews of observational studies of risk of thrombosis and bleeding in urological surgery (ROTBUS): introduction and methodology

Pharmacological thromboprophylaxis in the peri-operative period involves a trade-off between reduction in venous thromboembolism (VTE) and an increase in bleeding. Baseline risks, in the absence of prophylaxis...

Authors: Kari AO Tikkinen, Arnav Agarwal, Samantha Craigie, Rufus Cartwright, Michael K Gould, Jari Haukka, Richard Naspro, Giacomo Novara, Per Morten Sandset, Reed A Siemieniuk, Philippe D Violette and Gordon H Guyatt

A protocol for a systematic review of the use of process evaluations in knowledge translation research

Experimental designs for evaluating knowledge translation (KT) interventions for professional behavior change can provide strong estimates of intervention effectiveness but offer limited insight how the interv...

Authors: Shannon D Scott, Thomas Rotter, Lisa Hartling, Thane Chambers and Katherine H Bannar-Martin

A realist review of educational interventions to improve the delivery of nutrition care by doctors and future doctors

Dietary interventions are considered an important aspect of clinical practice, more so in the face of the rising prevalence of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases globally. Routinely, most doctors do...

Authors: Victor Mogre, Albert Scherpbier, Tim Dornan, Fred Stevens, Paul Armah Aryee and Mary Gemma Cherry

Workplace physical activity interventions and moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity levels among working-age women: a systematic review protocol

The rapid pace of modern life requires working-age women to juggle occupational, family and social demands. This modern lifestyle has been shown to have a detrimental effect on health, often associated with in...

Authors: Jennifer L Reed, Stephanie A Prince, Christie A Cole, J George Fodor, Swapnil Hiremath, Kerri-Anne Mullen, Heather E Tulloch, Erica Wright and Robert D Reid

Protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis of hepatitis C virus (HCV) prevalence and incidence in the Horn of Africa sub-region of the Middle East and North Africa

In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), hepatitis C virus (HCV) distribution appears to present a wide range of prevalence. The scale and nature of HCV disease burden is poorly known in the Horn of Africa ...

Authors: Karima Chaabna, Yousra A Mohamoud, Hiam Chemaitelly, Ghina R Mumtaz and Laith J Abu-Raddad

Educational interventions for general practitioners to identify and manage depression as a suicide risk factor in young people: a systematic review and meta-analysis protocol

Suicide is a major public health problem and globally is the second leading cause of death in young adults. Globally, there are 164,000 suicides per year in young people under 25 years. Depression is a strong ...

Authors: Lynda Tait and Maria Michail

Effect of standardized training on the reliability of the Cochrane risk of bias assessment tool: a study protocol

The Cochrane risk of bias (RoB) tool has been widely embraced by the systematic review community, but several studies have reported that its reliability is low. We aim to investigate whether training of raters...

Authors: Bruno R da Costa, Nina M Resta, Brooke Beckett, Nicholas Israel-Stahre, Alison Diaz, Bradley C Johnston, Matthias Egger, Peter Jüni and Susan Armijo-Olivo

Processes, contexts, and rationale for disinvestment: a protocol for a critical interpretive synthesis

Practical solutions are needed to support the appropriate use of available health system resources as countries are continually pressured to ‘do more with less’ in health care. Increasingly, health systems and...

Authors: Michael G Wilson, Moriah E Ellen, John N Lavis, Jeremy M Grimshaw, Kaelan A Moat, Joshua Shemer, Terry Sullivan, Sarah Garner, Ron Goeree, Roberto Grilli, Justin Peffer and Kevin Samra

Randomised placebo-controlled trials of individualised homeopathic treatment: systematic review and meta-analysis

A rigorous and focused systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of individualised homeopathic treatment has not previously been undertaken. We tested the hypothesis that the o...

Authors: Robert T Mathie, Suzanne M Lloyd, Lynn A Legg, Jürgen Clausen, Sian Moss, Jonathan RT Davidson and Ian Ford

Childhood socioeconomic position and adult leisure-time physical activity: a systematic review protocol

Participation in leisure-time physical activity benefits health and is thought to be more prevalent in higher socioeconomic groups. Evidence indicates that childhood socioeconomic circumstances may have long-t...

Authors: Ahmed Elhakeem, Rachel Cooper, David Bann and Rebecca Hardy

Methodological issues and recommendations for systematic reviews of prognostic studies: an example from cardiovascular disease

Prognostic factors are associated with the risk of future health outcomes in individuals with a particular health condition. The prognostic ability of such factors is increasingly being assessed in both primar...

Authors: Janine Dretzke, Joie Ensor, Sue Bayliss, James Hodgkinson, Marie Lordkipanidzé, Richard D Riley, David Fitzmaurice and David Moore

Health status of and health-care provision to asylum seekers in Germany: protocol for a systematic review and evidence mapping of empirical studies

There are more than 100,000 asylum seekers registered in Germany, who are granted limited access to health services. This study aims to provide a systematic overview of the empirical literature on the health s...

Authors: Christine Schneider, Amir Mohsenpour, Stefanie Joos and Kayvan Bozorgmehr

Association of industry sponsorship and positive outcome in randomised controlled trials in general and abdominal surgery: protocol for a systematic review and empirical study

Industry sponsorship has been identified as a factor correlating with positive research findings in several fields of medical science. To date, the influence of industry sponsorship in general and abdominal su...

Authors: Pascal Probst, Kathrin Grummich, Alexis Ulrich, Markus W Büchler, Phillip Knebel and Markus K Diener

Impact of missing participant data for dichotomous outcomes on pooled effect estimates in systematic reviews: a protocol for a methodological study

There is no consensus on how authors conducting meta-analysis should deal with trial participants with missing outcome data. The objectives of this study are to assess in Cochrane and non-Cochrane systematic r...

Authors: Elie A Akl, Lara A Kahale, Arnav Agarwal, Nada Al-Matari, Shanil Ebrahim, Paul Elias Alexander, Matthias Briel, Romina Brignardello-Petersen, Jason W Busse, Batoul Diab, Alfonso Iorio, Joey Kwong, Ling Li, Luciane Cruz Lopes, Reem Mustafa, Ignacio Neumann…

Efficacy and safety of damage control in experimental animal models of injury: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

Although abbreviated surgery with planned reoperation (damage control surgery) is now widely used to manage major trauma patients, the procedure and its component interventions have not been evaluated in rando...

Authors: Nela Cosic, Derek J Roberts and Henry T Stelfox