Articles

Cochrane systematic reviews and co-publication: dissemination of evidence on interventions for ophthalmic conditions

Systematic reviews of interventions provide a summary of the evidence available on intervention effectiveness and harm. Cochrane systematic reviews (CSRs) have been published electronically in the Cochrane Dat...

Authors: Xue Wang, Barbara S. Hawkins and Kay Dickersin

Systematic review protocol of interventions to improve the psychological well-being of general practitioners

The challenges and complexities faced by general practitioners are increasing, and there are concerns about their well-being. Consequently, attention has been directed towards developing and evaluating interve...

Authors: Marylou Murray, Lois Murray and Michael Donnelly

Comparison of physical interventions, behavioral interventions, natural health products, and pharmacologics to manage hot flashes in patients with breast or prostate cancer: protocol for a systematic review incorporating network meta-analyses

Breast and prostate cancers are the most commonly diagnosed non-dermatologic malignancies in Canada. Agents including endocrine therapies (e.g., aromatase inhibitors, gonadotrophin-releasing hormone analogs, a...

Authors: Brian Hutton, Fatemeh Yazdi, Louise Bordeleau, Scott Morgan, Chris Cameron, Salmaan Kanji, Dean Fergusson, Andrea Tricco, Sharon Straus, Becky Skidmore, Mona Hersi, Misty Pratt, Sasha Mazzarello, Melissa Brouwers, David Moher and Mark Clemons

Effectiveness of guideline dissemination and implementation strategies on health care professionals’ behaviour and patient outcomes in the cancer care context: a systematic review protocol

Health care professionals (HCPs) are able to make effective decisions regarding patient care through the use of systematically developed clinical practice guidelines (CPGs). These recommendations are especiall...

Authors: Jennifer R. Tomasone, Rushil Chaudhary and Melissa C. Brouwers

Metacognition and evidence analysis instruction: an educational framework and practical experience

The role of metacognitive skills in the evidence analysis process has received little attention in the research literature. While the steps of the evidence analysis process are well defined, the role of higher...

Authors: J. Scott Parrott and Matthew L. Rubinstein

Protocol for a systematic review: understanding the motivations and barriers to uptake and use of female-initiated, primary biomedical HIV prevention technologies in sub-Saharan Africa

Women in sub-Saharan Africa are disproportionately affected by high rates of HIV, yet relatively few products exist for female-initiated HIV prevention. New antiretroviral (ARV)-based prevention options could ...

Authors: Robyn Eakle, Caitlin Jarrett, Adam Bourne, Jonathan Stadler and Heidi Larson

Characteristics and determinants of knowledge transfer policies at universities and public institutions in medical research—protocol for a systematic review of the qualitative research literature

Universities, public institutions, and the transfer of knowledge to the private sector play a major role in the development of medical technologies. The decisions of universities and public institutions regard...

Authors: Rosa Jahn, Olaf Müller and Kayvan Bozorgmehr

Systematic review of school-based interventions to prevent smoking for girls

The purpose of this review is to study the effect of school-based interventions on smoking prevention for girls.

Authors: Miriam J.J. de Kleijn, Melissa M. Farmer, Marika Booth, Aneesa Motala, Alexandria Smith, Scott Sherman, Willem J.J. Assendelft and Paul Shekelle

Carers’ experiences, needs and preferences during inpatient stroke rehabilitation: a protocol for a systematic review of qualitative studies

Large numbers of people provide carer roles for survivors of stroke. Person-centred stroke rehabilitation must consider the perspectives of carers, as stroke affects not only the stroke survivor but also the q...

Authors: Julie A. Luker, Susanne Bernhardsson, Elizabeth Lynch, Carolyn Murray, Olivia P. Hill and Julie Bernhardt

Determining the number of stimuli required to reliably assess corticomotor excitability and primary motor cortical representations using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS): a protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a technique that can be used to assess corticospinal plasticity. Current TMS practices involve the administration of multiple stimuli over target areas of the partici...

Authors: Rocco Cavaleri, Siobhan M. Schabrun and Lucy S. Chipchase

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

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

Percutaneous versus surgical strategy for tracheostomy: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis of perioperative and postoperative complications

Tracheostomy is one of the most frequently performed procedures in intensive care medicine. The two main approaches to form a tracheostoma are the open surgical tracheotomy (ST) and the interventional strategy...

Authors: Rosa Klotz, Ulla Klaiber, Kathrin Grummich, Pascal Probst, Markus K. Diener, Markus W. Büchler and Phillip Knebel

Cognitive biases in response to visual body-related stimuli in eating disorders: study protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

Biased processing of body-related information may be linked to the development and maintenance of eating disorders (ED). The objective of this systematic review will be to examine the occurrence and the extent...

Authors: Kathrin Schuck, Simone Munsch and Silvia Schneider

Quality indicators in continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) care in critically ill patients: protocol for a systematic review

Renal replacement therapy is increasingly utilized in the intensive care unit (ICU), of which continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) is most common. Despite CRRT being a relatively resource-intensive and ...

Authors: Oleksa Rewa, Pierre-Marc Villeneuve, Dean T. Eurich, Henry T Stelfox, RT Noel Gibney, Lisa Hartling, Robin Featherstone and Sean M Bagshaw

Erratum to: 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

Authors: Anneloes E. Ruifrok, Ewelina Rogozinska, Mireille N. M. van Poppel, Girish Rayanagoudar, Sally Kerry, Christianne J. M. de Groot, SeonAe Yeo, Emma Molyneaux, Ruben Barakat Carballo, Maria Perales, Annick Bogaerts, Jose G. Cecatti, Fernanda Surita, Jodie Dodd, Julie Owens, Nermeen El Beltagy…

Erratum to: Thanks to all those who reviewed for systematic reviews in 2014

Authors: David Moher, Paul Shekelle and Lesley A. Stewart

Indicators and measurement tools for health system integration: a knowledge synthesis protocol

Health system integration is a key component of health system reform with the goal of improving outcomes for patients, providers, and the health system. Although health systems continue to strive for better in...

Authors: Nelly D. Oelke, Esther Suter, Maria Alice Dias da Silva Lima and Cheryl Van Vliet-Brown

Handling trial participants with missing outcome data when conducting a meta-analysis: a systematic survey of proposed approaches

When potentially associated with the likelihood of outcome, missing participant data represents a serious potential source of bias in randomized trials. Authors of systematic reviews frequently face this probl...

Authors: Elie A. Akl, Lara A. Kahale, Thomas Agoritsas, Romina Brignardello-Petersen, Jason W. Busse, Alonso Carrasco-Labra, Shanil Ebrahim, Bradley C. Johnston, Ignacio Neumann, Ivan Sola, Xin Sun, Per Vandvik, Yuqing Zhang, Pablo Alonso-Coello and Gordon Guyatt

Instruments to measure patient experience of healthcare quality in hospitals: a systematic review

Improving and sustaining the quality of hospital care is an international challenge. Patient experience data can be used to target improvement and research. However, the use of patient experience data has been...

Authors: Michelle Beattie, Douglas J. Murphy, Iain Atherton and William Lauder

Complications of low compared to standard pneumoperitoneum pressures in laparoscopic surgery for benign gynecologic pathology: a systematic review protocol

No definite consensus has been established about the optimal pressure for artificial pneumoperitoneum when performing laparoscopic surgery. It has been postulated that lowering intra-peritoneal pressure levels...

Authors: Esther B. Kyle, Sarah Maheux-Lacroix, Amélie Boutin and Madeleine Lemyre

Out-of-hours discharge from intensive care, in-hospital mortality and intensive care readmission rates: a systematic review protocol

Most patients are discharged from an intensive care unit with an expectation that they will survive their hospital stay, yet these patients have high subsequent in-hospital mortality. Patients are frequently d...

Authors: Sarah A. Vollam, Susan J. Dutton, Duncan Young and Peter J. Watkinson

Capnography monitoring during procedural sedation and analgesia: a systematic review protocol

An important potential clinical benefit of using capnography monitoring during procedural sedation and analgesia (PSA) is that this technology could improve patient safety by reducing serious sedation-related ...

Authors: Aaron Conway, Clint Douglas and Joanna Sutherland

Risk factors for hospital re-presentation among older adults following fragility fractures: protocol for a systematic review

After being discharged from hospital following the acute management of a fragility fracture, older adults may re-present to hospital emergency departments in the post-discharge period. Early re-presentation to...

Authors: Saira A. Mathew, Kristiann C. Heesch, Elise Gane and Steven M. McPhail

Advancing the field of health systems research synthesis

Those planning, managing and working in health systems worldwide routinely need to make decisions regarding strategies to improve health care and promote equity. Systematic reviews of different kinds can be of...

Authors: Etienne V. Langlois, Michael K. Ranson, Till Bärnighausen, Xavier Bosch-Capblanch, Karen Daniels, Fadi El-Jardali, Abdul Ghaffar, Jeremy Grimshaw, Andy Haines, John N. Lavis, Simon Lewin, Qingyue Meng, Sandy Oliver, Tomás Pantoja, Sharon Straus, Ian Shemilt…

What value is the CINAHL database when searching for systematic reviews of qualitative studies?

The Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) is generally thought to be a good source to search when conducting a review of qualitative evidence. Case studies have suggested that using...

Authors: Kath Wright, Su Golder and Kate Lewis-Light

Improving search efficiency for systematic reviews of diagnostic test accuracy: an exploratory study to assess the viability of limiting to MEDLINE, EMBASE and reference checking

Increasing numbers of systematic reviews evaluating the diagnostic test accuracy of technologies are being published. Currently, review teams tend to apply conventional systematic review standards to identify ...

Authors: Louise Preston, Christopher Carroll, Paolo Gardois, Suzy Paisley and Eva Kaltenthaler

Identification of behaviour change components in swallowing interventions for head and neck cancer patients: protocol for a systematic review

Dysphagia (difficulty in swallowing) is a predictable consequence of head and neck cancer and its treatment. Loss of the ability to eat and drink normally has a devastating impact on quality of life for surviv...

Authors: Roganie Govender, Christina H Smith, Stuart A Taylor, Daphne Grey, Jane Wardle and Benjamin Gardner

Investigating the effectiveness of different aspirin dosing regimens and the timing of aspirin intake in primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease: protocol for a systematic review

Once-daily low-dose aspirin is routinely used for the prevention of secondary events in cardiovascular disease (CVD). The routine use of aspirin in primary prevention of CVD is less clear due to a finer balanc...

Authors: Danai Bem, Janine Dretzke, Simon Stevens, Marie Lordkipanidzé, James Hodgkinson, Sue Bayliss, David Moore and David Fitzmaurice

N-of-1 randomized trials for psychological and health behavior outcomes: a systematic review protocol

Randomized controlled trials are the sine qua non of causal inference; however, heterogeneity of treatment effects for many chronic conditions and for many symptoms often limits their utility. Single-patient s...

Authors: Jonathan A. Shaffer, Louis Falzon, Ken Cheung and Karina W. Davidson

Faster title and abstract screening? Evaluating Abstrackr, a semi-automated online screening program for systematic reviewers

Citation screening is time consuming and inefficient. We sought to evaluate the performance of Abstrackr, a semi-automated online tool for predictive title and abstract screening.

Authors: John Rathbone, Tammy Hoffmann and Paul Glasziou

Automating data extraction in systematic reviews: a systematic review

Automation of the parts of systematic review process, specifically the data extraction step, may be an important strategy to reduce the time necessary to complete a systematic review. However, the state of the...

Authors: Siddhartha R. Jonnalagadda, Pawan Goyal and Mark D. Huffman

A systematic review protocol to evaluate the psychometric properties of measures of function within adult neuro-rehabilitation

Spasticity in the upper limb is common after acquired brain impairment and may have a significant impact on the ability to perform meaningful daily activities. Traditionally, outcome measurement in spasticity ...

Authors: Shannon Pike, Natasha Anne Lannin, Anne Cusick, Kylie Wales, Lynne Turner-Stokes and Stephen Ashford

Managing the incidence of selective reporting bias: a survey of Cochrane review groups

Selective reporting bias (SRB), the incomplete publication of outcomes measured or of analyses performed in a study, may lead to the over- or underestimation of treatment effects or harms. Cochrane systematic ...

Authors: Emma K Reid, Aaron M Tejani, Lawrence N Huan, Gregory Egan, Cait O’Sullivan, Alain D Mayhew and Monisha Kabir

N-acetylcysteine for non-paracetamol drug-induced liver injury: a systematic review protocol

Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) refers to acute or chronic liver injury that may occur as a consequence of using drugs and herbal or dietary supplements. Specific therapies for DILI are limited. There is cons...

Authors: Mohamed Farouk Chughlay, Nicole Kramer, Mahmoud Werfalli, Wendy Spearman, Mark Emmanuel Engel and Karen Cohen

The effect of non-invasive positive airway pressure therapy following thoracic surgical procedures: protocol for a systematic review

Thoracic surgical procedures impair respiratory function, decreasing ventilation and oxygenation and increasing the risk of acute respiratory failure and pulmonary complications. To prevent these clinical repe...

Authors: Elinaldo da Conceição dos Santos and Adriana Claudia Lunardi

Effectiveness of management models for facilitating self-management and patient outcomes in adults with diabetes and chronic kidney disease

Self-management models can be a very powerful resource in the health system provided they are well tailored to a particular disease and setting. Patient outcomes have been demonstrated to improve when self-man...

Authors: Edward Zimbudzi, Clement Lo, Marie Misso, Sanjeeva Ranasinha and Sophia Zoungas

Early years interventions to improve child health and wellbeing: what works, for whom and in what circumstances? Protocol for a realist review

Child health and wellbeing is influenced by multiple factors, all of which can impact on early childhood development. Adverse early life experiences can have lasting effects across the life course, sustaining ...

Authors: Emma Coles, Helen Cheyne and Brigid Daniel

Cholecystectomy vs. percutaneous cholecystostomy for the management of critically ill patients with acute cholecystitis: a protocol for a systematic review

Acute cholecystitis is a common diagnosis. However, the heterogeneity of presentation makes it difficult to standardize management. Although surgery is the mainstay of treatment, critically ill patients have b...

Authors: Peter C. Ambe, Sarantos Kaptanis, Marios Papadakis, Sebastian A. Weber and Hubert Zirngibl

Prevalence and clinical impact of magnesium disorders in end-stage renal disease: a protocol for a systematic review

Magnesium plays a key role in maintaining internal homeostasis through actions in the musculoskeletal, nervous, endocrine and cellular messenger systems. Renal excretion is the major route of magnesium elimina...

Authors: John Floridis, Asanga Abeyaratne and Sandawana William Majoni

Impacts of information and communication technologies on nursing care: an overview of systematic reviews (protocol)

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) used in the health sector have well-known advantages. They can promote patient-centered healthcare, improve quality of care, and educate health professionals a...

Authors: Geneviève Rouleau, Marie-Pierre Gagnon and José Côté

Incidence of lower extremity amputation in the diabetic compared to the non-diabetic population: a systematic review protocol

Diabetic individuals have a largely increased risk of lower extremity amputation (LEA) compared with non-diabetic patients. Prior systematic reviews of incidence of LEA have some limitations with respect to la...

Authors: Tatjana Kvitkina, Maria Narres, Heiner Claessen, Sigrid Droste, Stephan Morbach, Oliver Kuss and Andrea Icks

Towards core outcome set (COS) development: a follow-up descriptive survey of outcomes in Cochrane reviews

A core outcome set (COS) can address problems of outcome heterogeneity and outcome reporting bias in trials and systematic reviews, including Cochrane reviews, helping to reduce waste. One of the aims of the i...

Authors: Francesca Wuytack, Valerie Smith, Mike Clarke, Paula Williamson and Elizabeth Gargon

Colorectal cancer among persons with HIV: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

As persons with HIV live longer, data regarding the epidemiology of colorectal cancer are required to optimize the long-term management of these patients. The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysi...

Authors: Joseph Djiometio Nguemo, Tyler J O’Neill, Nancy Kou, Anne-Marie Tynan, Ayda Agha, Ann N Burchell and Tony Antoniou

Predicting developmental outcomes in premature infants by term equivalent MRI: systematic review and meta-analysis

This study aims to determine the prognostic accuracy of term MRI in very preterm born (≤32 weeks) or low-birth-weight (≤1500 g) infants for long-term (>18 months) developmental outcomes.

Authors: Janneke van’t Hooft, Johanna H. van der Lee, Brent C. Opmeer, Cornelieke S. H. Aarnoudse-Moens, Arnold G. E. Leenders, Ben Willem J. Mol and Timo R. de Haan

Depth of anaesthesia monitoring during procedural sedation and analgesia: a systematic review protocol

Procedural sedation and analgesia (PSA) is used to attenuate the pain and distress that may otherwise be experienced during diagnostic and interventional medical or dental procedures. As the risk of adverse ev...

Authors: Aaron Conway and Joanna Sutherland

A systematic review investigating the cumulative incidence of chronic kidney disease in young adults with impaired glucose tolerance

It is known that risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is elevated in patients with diabetes mellitus but it is not clear whether the risk is also elevated with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT). If the risk is ...

Authors: Ferozkhan Jadhakhan, Tom Marshall and Paramjit Gill

Assessing cost-effectiveness of HPV vaccines with decision analytic models: what are the distinct challenges of low- and middle-income countries? A protocol for a systematic review

Cervical cancer poses a huge health burden, both to developed and developing nations, making prevention and control strategies necessary. However, the challenges of designing and implementing prevention strate...

Authors: Obinna I. Ekwunife, Andreas Gerber Grote, Christoph Mosch, James F. O’Mahony and Stefan K. Lhachimi

Outcomes in the offspring of mothers with pre-diabetes during pregnancy: a protocol for a systematic review

Despite the increasing prevalence of pre-diabetes worldwide, there is insufficient literature on the impact of gestational pre-diabetes on offspring outcomes. The objective of this systematic review is to dete...

Authors: Rukia Swaleh, Ling Zeng, Lawrence Mbuagbaw and Katherine M Morrison

Small-study effects and time trends in diagnostic test accuracy meta-analyses: a meta-epidemiological study

Small-study effects and time trends have been identified in meta-analyses of randomized trials. We evaluated whether these effects are also present in meta-analyses of diagnostic test accuracy studies.

Authors: Wynanda Annefloor van Enst, Christiana A Naaktgeboren, Eleanor A Ochodo, Joris AH de Groot, Mariska M Leeflang, Johannes B Reitsma, Rob JPM Scholten, Karel GM Moons, Aeilko H Zwinderman, Patrick MM Bossuyt and Lotty Hooft

A BEME (Best Evidence in Medical Education) systematic review of the use of workplace-based assessment in identifying and remediating poor performance among postgraduate medical trainees

Workplace-based assessments were designed to facilitate observation and structure feedback on the performance of trainees in real-time clinical settings and scenarios. Research in workplace-based assessments h...

Authors: Aileen Barrett, Rose Galvin, Yvonne Steinert, Albert Scherpbier, Ann O’Shaughnessy, Mary Horgan and Tanya Horsley