4,999,347 papers found

This review highlights clinically important findings about acne treatment identified in nine systematic reviews published or indexed in the period March 2009 to February 2010. A systematic review of dietary influences on acne suggested that a possible role of dietary factors in acne cannot be dismissed, as the studies…

This is the fifth in a series of six articles describing systematic reviews in animal agriculture and veterinary medicine. The previous articles in this series overviewed the development of a review protocol and the initial steps in conducting a systematic review: identification of a structured question to be answered…

OBJECTIVES: Searching multiple sources when conducting systematic reviews is considered good practice. We aimed to investigate the impact of using sources beyond PubMed in systematic reviews of therapeutic interventions. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: We randomly selected 50 Cochrane reviews that searched the PubMed (or ME…

BACKGROUND: Producing high-quality, relevant systematic reviews and keeping them up to date is challenging. Cochrane is a leading provider of systematic reviews in health. For Cochrane to continue to contribute to improvements in heath, Cochrane Reviews must be rigorous, reliable and up to date. We aimed to explore exi…

BACKGROUND: A systematic review aims to combine outcome data from published studies in a population. It is based on a number of steps and although there are numerous advantages in systematic review studies, dentists have been finding difficulties in performing them. OBJECTIVE: Taking into account the misconceptions an…

OBJECTIVE: The academic and scientific community has reacted at pace to gather evidence to help and inform about COVID-19. Concerns have been raised about the quality of this evidence. The aim of this review was to map the nature, scope and quality of evidence syntheses on COVID-19 and to explore the relationship betwe…

BACKGROUND: Methods for systematic reviews of the effects of health interventions have focused mainly on addressing the question of 'What works?' or 'Is this intervention effective in achieving one or more specific outcomes?' Addressing the question 'Is it worth it given the resources available?' has received less atte…

BACKGROUND: The Cochrane Collaboration records risk of bias (ROB) judgements on the original studies it analyses. The aim of this review is to perform an audit of all literature produced by the Cochrane Colorectal Cancer Group (CCCG), focusing on whether intervention type has any relationship with ROB and the ability o…

BACKGROUND: There is an often-held assumption that the engagement of clinicians and healthcare organizations in research improves healthcare performance at various levels. Previous reviews found up to 28 studies suggesting a positive association between the engagement of individuals and healthcare organizations in rese…

Childhood obesity has a complex multi-factorial aetiology grounded in environmental and individual level factors that affect behaviour and outcomes. An ecological, systems-based approach to addressing childhood obesity is increasingly being advocated. The primary aim of this review is to summarize the evidence reported…

BACKGROUND: Despite a growing portfolio of rehabilitation reviews, uptake of review findings into practice remains slow, with review findings perceived to be lacking in relevance and usability for stakeholders. Key aspects of review design, production and dissemination have been identified to contribute to this knowled…

Systematic reviews are an essential tool for researchers, prevention providers and policy makers who want to remain current with the evidence in the field. Systematic review must adhere to strict standards, as the results can provide a more objective appraisal of evidence for making scientific decisions than traditiona…

Decisions related to a spectrum of nutrition-related public health and clinical concerns must consider many factors and are best informed by evaluating the totality and quality of the evidence. Systematic review (SR) is a structured process to evaluate, compare, and synthesize relevant evidence for the SR-specific ques…

BACKGROUND: This review aims to rate the quality of evidence and the strength of recommendations in high-quality systematic reviews of non-drug therapies. Hypertensive patients who are resistant or non-adherent to antihypertensive drugs may be easier to manage if they choose alternative non-drug therapies for hypertens…

OBJECTIVE: To compare and contrast different knowledge synthesis methods and map their specific steps through a scoping review to gain a better understanding of how to select the most appropriate knowledge synthesis method to answer research questions of complex evidence. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: Electronic databases…

The insulin resistance/metabolic syndrome is characterized by the variable co-existence of hyperinsulinemia, obesity, dyslipidemia (small dense low-density lipoprotein, hypertriglyceridemia, and decreased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol), and hypertension. The pathogenesis of the syndrome has multiple origins. How…

Systematic reviews assist nurses, other health care providers, decision makers, and consumers in managing the explosion of health care information by synthesizing valid data and reporting the effects of interventions. Nurses are increasingly using systematic reviews to guide their practice and develop policy. The purpo…

OBJECTIVES: In this paper, we compile and describe the main approaches proposed in the literature to include methodological quality (MQ) or risk of bias (RoB) into research synthesis. We also meta-review how the RoB of observational primary studies is being assessed and to what extent the results are incorporated in th…