Articles

Are men difficult to find? Identifying male-specific studies in MEDLINE and Embase

Systematic reviews often investigate the effectiveness of interventions for one sex. However, identifying interventions with data presented according to the sex of study participants can be challenging due to ...

Authors: Fiona Stewart, Cynthia Fraser, Clare Robertson, Alison Avenell, Daryll Archibald, Flora Douglas, Pat Hoddinott, Edwin van Teijlingen and Dwayne Boyers

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

Conflicts of interest and critiques of the use of systematic reviews in policymaking: an analysis of opinion articles

Strong opinions for or against the use of systematic reviews to inform policymaking have been published in the medical literature. The purpose of this paper was to examine whether funding sources and author fi...

Authors: Susan R Forsyth, Donna H Odierna, David Krauth and Lisa A Bero

An assessment of the efficacy of searching in biomedical databases beyond MEDLINE in identifying studies for a systematic review on ward closures as an infection control intervention to control outbreaks

The purpose of our study is to determine the value and efficacy of searching biomedical databases beyond MEDLINE for systematic reviews.

Authors: Yoojin Kwon, Susan E Powelson, Holly Wong, William A Ghali and John M Conly

Comparative evaluation of group-based mindfulness-based stress reduction and cognitive behavioral therapy for the treatment and management of chronic pain disorders: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis with indirect comparisons

Chronic pain disorders impact the physical, psychological, social, and financial well-being of between 10%–30% of Canadians. The primary aims of psychological interventions targeting chronic pain disorders are...

Authors: Taylor Hatchard, Chris Lepage, Brian Hutton, Becky Skidmore and Patricia A Poulin

Efficacy, quality of life, and acceptability outcomes of atypical antipsychotic augmentation treatment for treatment-resistant depression: protocol for a systematic review and network meta-analysis

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a debilitating and costly mental disorder. Although commercially available antidepressants have proliferated over the last 20 years, a substantial number of patients either d...

Authors: Yiyun Liu, Xinyu Zhou, Bin Qin, Cinzia Del Giovane, Yuqing Zhang and Peng Xie

Intrapersonal, social and physical environmental determinants of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in working-age women: a systematic review protocol

The majority of North American adult females do not meet current physical activity recommendations (150 min of moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) per week accrued in ≥10 min bouts) ultimat...

Authors: Stephanie A Prince, Jennifer L Reed, Kara A Nerenberg, Elizabeth A Kristjansson, Swapnil Hiremath, Kristi B Adamo, Heather E Tulloch, Kerri-Anne Mullen, J George Fodor, Erica Wright and Robert D Reid

Study protocol: differential effects of diet and physical activity based interventions in pregnancy on maternal and fetal outcomes—individual patient data (IPD) meta-analysis and health economic evaluation

Pregnant women who gain excess weight are at risk of complications during pregnancy and in the long term. Interventions based on diet and physical activity minimise gestational weight gain with varied effect o...

Authors: Anneloes E Ruifrok, Ewelina Rogozinska, Mireille NM van Poppel, Girish Rayanagoudar, Sally Kerry, Christianne JM de Groot, SeonAe Yeo, Emma Molyneaux, Fionnuala M McAuliffe, Lucilla Poston, Tracy Roberts, Richard D Riley, Arri Coomarasamy, Khalid Khan, Ben Willem Mol and Shakila Thangaratinam

Impact of long-term lifestyle programmes on weight loss and cardiovascular risk factors in overweight/obese participants: a systematic review and network meta-analysis

The aim of this meta-analysis was to compare the long-term efficacy of diet plus exercise (D + E) vs. diet (D), D + E vs. exercise (E) and D vs. E on anthropometric outcomes and cardiovascular risk factors in ...

Authors: Lukas Schwingshackl, Sofia Dias and Georg Hoffmann

Effects and repercussions of local/hospital-based health technology assessment (HTA): a systematic review

Health technology assessment (HTA) is increasingly performed at the local or hospital level where the costs, impacts, and benefits of health technologies can be directly assessed. Although local/hospital-based...

Authors: Marie-Pierre Gagnon, Marie Desmartis, Thomas Poder and William Witteman

Financial incentive policies at workplace cafeterias for preventing obesity—a systematic review and meta-analysis (Protocol)

Various studies are currently investigating ways to prevent lifestyle-related diseases and obesity among workers through interventions using incentive strategies, including price discounts for low-fat snacks a...

Authors: Kimi Sawada, Erika Ota, Sadequa Shahrook and Rintaro Mori

Collaborative care for the treatment of comorbid depression and coronary heart disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis protocol

Depression and coronary heart disease (CHD) are frequently comorbid and portend higher morbidity, mortality and poorer quality of life. Prior systematic reviews of depression treatment randomized controlled tr...

Authors: Phillip J Tully and Harald Baumeister

Clinical trials registries are under-utilized in the conduct of systematic reviews: a cross-sectional analysis

Publication bias is a major threat to the validity of systematic reviews. Searches of clinical trials registries can help to identify unpublished trials, though little is known about how often these resources ...

Authors: Christopher W Jones, Lukas G Keil, Mark A Weaver and Timothy F Platts-Mills

The impact of Cochrane Systematic Reviews: a mixed method evaluation of outputs from Cochrane Review Groups supported by the UK National Institute for Health Research

There has been a growing emphasis on evidence-informed decision-making in health care. Systematic reviews, such as those produced by the Cochrane Collaboration, have been a key component of this movement. The ...

Authors: Frances Bunn, Daksha Trivedi, Phil Alderson, Laura Hamilton, Alice Martin and Steve Iliffe

The diagnostic accuracy of the Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2), Patient Health Questionnaire-8 (PHQ-8), and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) for detecting major depression: protocol for a systematic review and individual patient data meta-analyses

Major depressive disorder (MDD) may be present in 10%–20% of patients in medical settings. Routine depression screening is sometimes recommended to improve depression management. However, studies of the diagno...

Authors: Brett D Thombs, Andrea Benedetti, Lorie A Kloda, Brooke Levis, Ioana Nicolau, Pim Cuijpers, Simon Gilbody, John P A Ioannidis, Dean McMillan, Scott B Patten, Ian Shrier, Russell J Steele and Roy C Ziegelstein

Protocol for a systematic review of the clinical effectiveness of pre-hospital blood components compared to other resuscitative fluids in patients with major traumatic haemorrhage

There is growing interest in the use of blood components for pre-hospital resuscitation of patients with major traumatic haemorrhage. It has been speculated that early resuscitation with blood components may h...

Authors: Janine Dretzke, Iain M Smith, Robert H James and Mark J Midwinter

Title and Abstract Screening and Evaluation in Systematic Reviews (TASER): a pilot randomised controlled trial of title and abstract screening by medical students

The production of high quality systematic reviews requires rigorous methods that are time-consuming and resource intensive. Citation screening is a key step in the systematic review process. An opportunity to ...

Authors: Lauren Ng, Veronica Pitt, Kit Huckvale, Ornella Clavisi, Tari Turner, Russell Gruen and Julian H Elliott

Individual, social and physical environmental correlates of sedentary behaviours in adults: a systematic review protocol

Adults spend the majority of their time being sedentary, and evidence suggests that those who spend more of their day engaged in sedentary activities (TV viewing, sitting, screen-based activities) are at incre...

Authors: Stephanie A Prince, Katelin M Gresty, Jennifer L Reed, Erica Wright, Mark S Tremblay and Robert D Reid

Protocol for a systematic review of reductions in therapy for children with low-risk febrile neutropenia

Febrile neutropenia is a common complication of therapy in children with cancer. Some patients are at low risk of complications, and research has considered reduction in therapy for these patients. A previous ...

Authors: Jessica E Morgan, Lesley Stewart and Robert S Phillips

Medical device procurement in low- and middle-income settings: protocol for a systematic review

Medical device procurement processes for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are a poorly understood and researched topic. To support LMIC policy formulation in this area, international public health orga...

Authors: Karin Diaconu, Yen-Fu Chen, Semira Manaseki-Holland, Carole Cummins and Richard Lilford

Efficacy and safety of pharmacological treatments for neuroborreliosis—protocol for a systematic review

Neuroborreliosis is a tick-borne infectious disease of the nervous system caused by Borrelia burgdorferi. Common clinical manifestations of neuroborreliosis are cranial nerve dysfunctions, polyradiculoneuritis, a...

Authors: Rick Dersch, Michael H Freitag, Stefanie Schmidt, Harriet Sommer, Gerta Rücker, Sebastian Rauer and Joerg J Meerpohl

The risk of elevated prolactin levels in pediatric patients exposed to antipsychotics for the treatment of schizophrenia and schizophrenia spectrum disorders: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

Antipsychotic medications, particularly second-generation antipsychotics, are increasingly being used to alleviate the symptoms of schizophrenia and other severe mental disorders in the pediatric population. W...

Authors: Eric Druyts, Shawn Eapen, Ping Wu and Kristian Thorlund

Factors associated with development of gastrointestinal problems in patients with scleroderma: a protocol for a systematic review

Scleroderma affects the gastrointestinal (GI) tract in 90% of all cases. Malnutrition, diarrhea, and constipation are some GI complications that can stem from scleroderma, and they contribute considerably to i...

Authors: Brian Younho Hong, Raymond Giang, Lawrence Mbuagbaw, Maggie Larche and Lehana Thabane

Considering methodological options for reviews of theory: illustrated by a review of theories linking income and health

Review of theory is an area of growing methodological advancement. Theoretical reviews are particularly useful where the literature is complex, multi-discipline, or contested. It has been suggested that adopti...

Authors: Mhairi Campbell, Matt Egan, Theo Lorenc, Lyndal Bond, Frank Popham, Candida Fenton and Michaela Benzeval

Failure or success of search strategies to identify adverse effects of medical devices: a feasibility study using a systematic review

Research has indicated that adverse effects terms are increasingly prevalent in the title, abstract or indexing terms of articles that contain adverse drug effects data in MEDLINE and Embase. However, it is un...

Authors: Su Golder, Kath Wright and Mark Rodgers

Risk for lung cancer in workers exposed to benzidine and/or beta-naphthylamine: a protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

Risk for lung cancer in workers exposed to benzidine (BZ) and/or beta-naphthylamine (BNA), which are well-known bladder carcinogens, has been examined in many epidemiological studies, but individual epidemiolo...

Authors: Kimiko Tomioka, Keigo Saeki, Kenji Obayashi, Yuu Tanaka and Norio Kurumatani

Maintenance interventions for overweight or obese children and adolescents who participated in a treatment program: study protocol for a systematic review

Childhood overweight and obesity are associated with significant health consequences. Early and successful treatment of this public health issue is necessary. Although several intervention programs for childre...

Authors: Laila B van der Heijden, Edith JM Feskens and Arieke J Janse

A Microsoft-Excel-based tool for running and critically appraising network meta-analyses—an overview and application of NetMetaXL

The use of network meta-analysis has increased dramatically in recent years. WinBUGS, a freely available Bayesian software package, has been the most widely used software package to conduct network meta-analys...

Authors: Stephen Brown, Brian Hutton, Tammy Clifford, Doug Coyle, Daniel Grima, George Wells and Chris Cameron

An overview of conducting systematic reviews with network meta-analysis

Authors: Deborah M Caldwell

Do sugar-sweetened beverages cause adverse health outcomes in adults? A systematic review protocol

Chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, impose significant burden to public health. Most chronic diseases are associated with underlying preventable risk factors, such as elevated...

Authors: Candyce Hamel, Adrienne Stevens, Kavita Singh, Mohammed T Ansari, Esther Myers, Paula Ziegler, Brian Hutton, Arya Sharma, Lise M Bjerre, Shannon Fenton, David CW Lau, Kathryn O’Hara, Robert Reid, Erinn Salewski, Ian Shrier, Noreen Willows…

Impact of contacting study authors to obtain additional data for systematic reviews: diagnostic accuracy studies for hepatic fibrosis

Seventeen of 172 included studies in a recent systematic review of blood tests for hepatic fibrosis or cirrhosis reported diagnostic accuracy results discordant from 2 × 2 tables, and 60 studies reported inade...

Authors: Shelley S Selph, Alexander D Ginsburg and Roger Chou

A systematic review of interventions aimed at increasing physical activity in adults with chronic musculoskeletal pain—protocol

Chronic musculoskeletal pain is highly prevalent, affecting around one in five people across Europe. Osteoarthritis, low back pain, neck pain and other musculoskeletal disorders are leading causes of disabilit...

Authors: Joanne Marley, Mark A Tully, Alison Porter-Armstrong, Brendan Bunting, John O’Hanlon and Suzanne M McDonough

The effectiveness of opioid substitution treatments for patients with opioid dependence: a systematic review and multiple treatment comparison protocol

Opioids are psychoactive analgesic drugs prescribed for pain relief and palliative care. Due to their addictive potential, effort and vigilance in controlling prescriptions is needed to avoid misuse and depend...

Authors: Brittany Burns Dennis, Leen Naji, Monica Bawor, Ashley Bonner, Michael Varenbut, Jeff Daiter, Carolyn Plater, Guillaume Pare, David C Marsh, Andrew Worster, Dipika Desai, Zainab Samaan and Lehana Thabane

The effectiveness of gentamicin in the treatment of Neisseria gonorrhoeae: a systematic review

A high level of resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae has developed against penicillins, sulphonamides, tetracyclines and quinolones, and recent surveillance data have shown a gradual reduction in sensitivity to cu...

Authors: Emma Hathorn, Divya Dhasmana, Lelia Duley and Jonathan DC Ross

Lean management in health care: definition, concepts, methodology and effects reported (systematic review protocol)

Lean is a set of operating philosophies and methods that help create a maximum value for patients by reducing waste and waits. It emphasizes the consideration of the customer’s needs, employee involvement and ...

Authors: Adegboyega K Lawal, Thomas Rotter, Leigh Kinsman, Nazmi Sari, Liz Harrison, Cathy Jeffery, Mareike Kutz, Mohammad F Khan and Rachel Flynn

Study protocol: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials in first-line treatment of squamous non-small cell lung cancer

There is a high unmet need for effective treatments for patients with squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Eli Lilly and Company is conducting a phase III, randomized, multicenter, open-label study of ...

Authors: Amy M DeLozier, Jacqueline Brown, Fanni Natanegara, Luping Zhao, Zhanglin Lin Cui, Stephen L Able, Lee Bowman, Joseph Treat and Lisa M Hess

Safety of licensed vaccines in HIV-infected persons: a systematic review protocol

Safety of vaccines remains a cornerstone of building public trust on the use of these cost-effective and life-saving public health interventions. In some settings, particularly Sub-Saharan Africa, there is a h...

Authors: Benjamin M Kagina, Charles S Wiysonge, Maia Lesosky, Shabir A Madhi and Gregory D Hussey

Knowledge, attitudes and practices on adolescent vaccination among parents, teachers and adolescents in Africa: a systematic review protocol

Vaccines are the most successful and cost-effective public health interventions available to avert vaccine-preventable diseases and deaths. Despite progress in the field of adolescent health, many young people...

Authors: Leila H Abdullahi, Benjamin M Kagina, Tali Cassidy, Esther F Adebayo, Charles S Wiysonge and Gregory D Hussey

The association between proximity to animal-feeding operations and community health: a protocol for updating a systematic review

Livestock and poultry operations that feed large numbers of animals are common. Facility capacity varies, but it is not uncommon for facilities to house 1,000 swine with multiple barns at a single site, feedlo...

Authors: Annette M O’Connor, Brent W Auvermann, Julian PT Higgins, Shelley P Kirychuk, Jan M Sargeant, Susanna G Von Essen, Julie M Glanville and Hannah Wood

Describing methods and interventions: a protocol for the systematic analysis of the perioperative quality improvement literature

Quality improvement (QI) methods are widely used in surgery in an effort to improve care, often using techniques such as Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles to implement specific interventions. Explicit definition of bot...

Authors: Emma Jones, Nicholas Lees, Graham Martin and Mary Dixon-Woods

A failed attempt to conduct an individual patient data meta-analysis

A study-level meta-analysis has shown that proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy is a promising prognostic marker in neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. An individual patient data meta-analysis could yi...

Authors: Gerald J Jaspers and Pieter LJ Degraeuwe

Do sugar-sweetened beverages cause adverse health outcomes in children? A systematic review protocol

Cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes are examples of chronic diseases that impose significant morbidity and mortality in the general population worldwide. Most chronic diseases are associated with underl...

Authors: Adrienne Stevens, Candyce Hamel, Kavita Singh, Mohammed T Ansari, Esther Myers, Paula Ziegler, Brian Hutton, Arya Sharma, Lise M Bjerre, Shannon Fenton, Robert Gow, Stasia Hadjiyannakis, Kathryn O’Hara, Catherine Pound, Erinn Salewski, Ian Shrier…

Prescription opioid misuse and its relation to injection drug use and hepatitis C virus infection: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

The production, prescription, and consumption of opioid analgesics to treat non-cancer pain have increased dramatically in the USA in the past decade. As a result, misuse of these opioids has increased; overdo...

Authors: Ashly E Jordan, Don Des Jarlais and Holly Hagan

Does intravenous contrast-enhanced computed tomography cause acute kidney injury? Protocol of a systematic review of the evidence

Contrast-induced acute kidney injury is a common cause of iatrogenic acute kidney injury (AKI). Most of the published estimates of AKI after contrast use originate from the cardiac catheterization literature d...

Authors: Jeanne Françoise Kayibanda, Swapnil Hiremath, Greg A Knoll, Dean Fergusson, Benjamin JW Chow, Wael Shabana and Ayub Akbari

Community pharmacy interventions for public health priorities: protocol for a systematic review of community pharmacy-delivered smoking, alcohol and weight management interventions

Community pharmacists can deliver health care advice at an opportunistic level, related to prescription or non-prescription medicines and as part of focused services designed to reduce specific risks to health...

Authors: Adam Todd, Helen J Moore, Andrew K Husband, Clare Bambra, Adetayo Kasim, Falko F Sniehotta, Liz Steed and Carolyn D Summerbell

Adverse effects of small-volume red blood cell transfusions in the neonatal population

Adverse transfusion reactions in the neonatal population are poorly understood and defined. The incidence and pattern of adverse effects due to red blood cell (RBC) transfusion are not well known, and there ha...

Authors: Amy Keir, Sanchita Pal, Marialena Trivella, Lani Lieberman, Jeannie Callum, Nadine Shehata and Simon Stanworth

Family-based interventions for substance misuse: a systematic review of systematic reviews—protocol

Worldwide, there are an estimated 15 million individuals with drug use disorders and over five times as many with alcohol use disorders (WHO 1:2, 2005). Most individuals with substance misuse have families who...

Authors: Yasmin Akram, Alex Copello and David Moore