Systematic review procedures Flashcards
(20 cards)
What does PICO stand for in the context of systematic reviews?
Population, Intervention (or Exposure), Comparator, Outcome
What are the first steps in the procedures for a systematic review?
Specify study characteristics (PICO, study design, setting, time frame) and report characteristics (years, language, publication status)
What types of characteristics should be specified in a systematic review?
Study characteristics and report characteristics
study characteristics: PICO, study designs, setting, and time frame
report characteristics: language, year, publication status
What should be included in the report characteristics?
Years, language, publication status
What is the purpose of generating inclusion and exclusion criteria?
Step 2 in procedures for systematic review
To determine which studies to include in the review
Which electronic databases are commonly used in systematic reviews?
MEDLINE, Embase, CENTRAL
What factors determine which electronic databases to use?
Based on PICO
What is the first step in developing a search strategy for systematic reviews?
Incorporate elements of population, intervention, and comparator
In MEDLINE, how should MeSH terms and keywords be combined?
Combine MeSH terms and keywords (title/abstract terms) to ensure complete search
[tiab]
What is the order of concepts to explore when developing a search strategy?
Population, Intervention, Comparison
How are terms grouped within a concept during the search strategy?
Grouped with ‘OR’
All of the terms within a concept are grouped with “OR” (within a bucket)
How are different concepts combined in the search strategy?
Combined with ‘AND’
Then each of the concepts are combined with “AND” (combining buckets)
What is the purpose of de-duplicating results from multiple databases?
To eliminate duplicate studies
Who should screen titles and abstracts in a systematic review?
Two reviewers independently and in duplicate
What type of questions should be used for broad elements of inclusion/exclusion?
Simple questions (yes/no/unsure)
What follows the title and abstract screening in systematic reviews?
Full-text screening
How many reviewers should conduct full-text screening?
Two reviewers independently and in duplicate
What should be extracted from individual studies?
General study characteristics, participant characteristics, intervention and comparator characteristics, outcomes and results
What is assessed for each study in a systematic review?
Risk of bias
What should be done with sufficiently similar studies if not conducting a meta-analysis?
Aggregate and describe findings
