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Puljak L, Bala MM, Zając J, Meštrović T, Buttigieg S, Yanakoulia M, Briel M, Lunny C, Lesniak W, Poklepović Peričić T, Alonso-Coello P, Clarke M, Djulbegovic B, Gartlehner G, Giannakou K, Glenny AM, Glenton C, Guyatt G, Hemkens LG, Ioannidis JPA, Jaeschke R, Juhl Jørgensen K, Martins-Pfeifer CC, Marušić A, Mbuagbaw L, Meneses Echavez JF, Moher D, Nussbaumer-Streit B, Page MJ, Pérez-Gaxiola G, Robinson KA, Salanti G, Saldanha IJ, Savović J, Thomas J, Tricco AC, Tugwell P, van Hoof J, Pieper D. Methods proposed for monitoring the implementation of evidence-based research: a cross-sectional study. J Clin Epidemiol 2024; 168:111247. [PMID: 38185190 DOI: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2024.111247] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/15/2023] [Revised: 12/22/2023] [Accepted: 01/03/2024] [Indexed: 01/09/2024]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Evidence-based research (EBR) is the systematic and transparent use of prior research to inform a new study so that it answers questions that matter in a valid, efficient, and accessible manner. This study surveyed experts about existing (e.g., citation analysis) and new methods for monitoring EBR and collected ideas about implementing these methods. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING We conducted a cross-sectional study via an online survey between November 2022 and March 2023. Participants were experts from the fields of evidence synthesis and research methodology in health research. Open-ended questions were coded by recurring themes; descriptive statistics were used for quantitative questions. RESULTS Twenty-eight expert participants suggested that citation analysis should be supplemented with content evaluation (not just what is cited but also in which context), content expert involvement, and assessment of the quality of cited systematic reviews. They also suggested that citation analysis could be facilitated with automation tools. They emphasized that EBR monitoring should be conducted by ethics committees and funding bodies before the research starts. Challenges identified for EBR implementation monitoring were resource constraints and clarity on responsibility for EBR monitoring. CONCLUSION Ideas proposed in this study for monitoring the implementation of EBR can be used to refine methods and define responsibility but should be further explored in terms of feasibility and acceptability. Different methods may be needed to determine if the use of EBR is improving over time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Livia Puljak
- Center for Evidence-Based Medicine and Healthcare, Catholic University of Croatia, Zagreb, Croatia.
| | - Małgorzata M Bala
- Systematic Reviews Unit, Department of Hygiene and Dietetics, Chair of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kraków, Poland
| | - Joanna Zając
- Department of Hygiene and Dietetics, Chair of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kraków, Poland
| | | | - Sandra Buttigieg
- Department of Health Systems Management and Leadership, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Malta, Msida, Malta
| | - Mary Yanakoulia
- Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Harokopio University, Athens, Greece
| | - Matthias Briel
- Division of Clinical Epidemiology, Department of Clinical Research, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland; University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Carole Lunny
- Knowledge Translation Program, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital, Unity Health Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Cochrane Hypertension Review Group, The Therapeutics Initiative, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
| | | | - Tina Poklepović Peričić
- Department of Prosthodontics, Study of Dental Medicine, University of Split School of Medicine, Split, Croatia
| | - Pablo Alonso-Coello
- Institut de Recerca Sant Pau (IR SANT PAU), Iberoamerican Cochrane Center, Barcelona, Spain; Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain
| | - Mike Clarke
- Northern Ireland Clinical Trials Unit (NICTU), Belfast, UK; Centre for Public Health, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK
| | - Benjamin Djulbegovic
- Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, USA
| | - Gerald Gartlehner
- RTI International, The RTI International-University of North Carolina Evidence-Based Practice Center, Durham, NC, USA; Department for Evidence-Based Medicine and Evaluation, University for Continuing Education Krems, Krems, Austria
| | - Konstantinos Giannakou
- Department of Health Sciences, School of Sciences, European University Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus
| | - Anne-Marie Glenny
- Division of Dentistry, Cochrane Oral Health, School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
| | - Claire Glenton
- Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen, Norway
| | - Gordon Guyatt
- Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
| | - Lars G Hemkens
- Research Center for Clinical Neuroimmunology and Neuroscience Basel (RC2NB), University Hospital Basel, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland; Department of Clinical Research, University Hospital Basel, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland; Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICS), Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Meta-Research Innovation Center Berlin (METRIC-B), Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin, Germany
| | - John P A Ioannidis
- Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICS), Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Department of Biomedical Data Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Department of Statistics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Roman Jaeschke
- Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
| | - Karsten Juhl Jørgensen
- Department of Clinical Research, Cochrane Denmark and Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine Odense, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
| | | | - Ana Marušić
- Department of Research in Biomedicine and Health, Center for Evidence-based Medicine, University of Split School of Medicine, Split, Croatia
| | - Lawrence Mbuagbaw
- Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Biostatistics Unit, Father Sean O'Sullivan Research Centre, St Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
| | - Jose Francisco Meneses Echavez
- Facultad de Cultura Física, Deporte y Recreación, Universidad Santo Tomás, Bogotá, Colombia; Division of Health Services at Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Bergen, Norway
| | - David Moher
- Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
| | - Barbara Nussbaumer-Streit
- Department for Evidence-Based Medicine and Evaluation, University for Continuing Education Krems, Krems, Austria
| | - Matthew J Page
- Methods in Evidence Synthesis Unit, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
| | | | - Karen A Robinson
- Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen, Norway; Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Georgia Salanti
- Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine University of Bern, Switzerland
| | - Ian J Saldanha
- Department of Epidemiology, Center for Clinical Trials and Evidence Synthesis, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Jelena Savović
- Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK; NIHR Applied Research Collaboration West (ARC West) at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust, Bristol, UK
| | - James Thomas
- EPPI-Centre, UCL Social Research Institute, University College London, London, UK
| | - Andrea C Tricco
- Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael's Hospital, Unity Health Toronto, Toronto, Canada; Epidemiology Division and the Institute of Health Management, Policy, and Evaluation, Dalla Lana School of Public Health University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada; Queen's Collaboration for Health Care Quality Joanna Briggs Institute Centre of Excellence, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada
| | - Peter Tugwell
- Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
| | - Joost van Hoof
- The Hague University of Applied Sciences, Faculty Social Work & Education, The Hague, The Netherlands; Institute of Spatial Management, Faculty of Spatial Management and Landscape Architecture, Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Wrocław, Poland
| | - Dawid Pieper
- Faculty of Health Sciences Brandenburg, Brandenburg Medical School Theodor Fontane, Institute for Health Services and Health System Research, Rüdersdorf, Germany; Center for Health Services Research, Brandenburg Medical School Theodor Fontane, Rüdersdorf, Germany
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2
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Sammy A, Baba A, Klassen TP, Moher D, Offringa M. A Decade of Efforts to Add Value to Child Health Research Practices. J Pediatr 2024; 265:113840. [PMID: 38000771 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2023.113840] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/09/2023] [Revised: 10/25/2023] [Accepted: 11/15/2023] [Indexed: 11/26/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE To identify practices that add value to improve the design, conduct, and reporting of child health research and reduce research waste. STUDY DESIGN In order to categorize the contributions of members of Standards for Research (StaR) in Child Health network, we developed a novel Child Health Improving Research Practices (CHIRP) framework comprised of 5 domains meant to counteract avoidable child health research waste and improve quality: 1) address research questions relevant to children, their families, clinicians, and researchers; 2) apply appropriate research design, conduct and analysis; 3) ensure efficient research oversight and regulation; 4) Provide accessible research protocols and reports; and 5) develop unbiased and usable research reports, including 17 responsible research practice recommendations. All child health research relevant publications by the 48 original StaR standards' authors over the last decade were identified, and main topic areas were categorized using this framework. RESULTS A total of 247 publications were included in the final sample: 100 publications (41%) in domain 1 (3 recommendations), 77 publications (31%) in domain 2 (3), 35 publications (14%) in domain 3 (4), 20 publications (8%) in domain 4 (4), and 15 publications (6%) in domain 5 (3). We identified readily implementable "responsible" research practices to counter child health research waste and improve quality, especially in the areas of patients and families' engagement throughout the research process, developing Core Outcome Sets, and addressing ethics and regulatory oversight issues. CONCLUSION While most of the practices are readily implementable, increased awareness of methodological issues and wider guideline uptake is needed to improve child health research. The CHIRP Framework can be used to guide responsible research practices that add value to child health research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adrian Sammy
- Child Health Evaluative Sciences, The Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Ami Baba
- Child Health Evaluative Sciences, The Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Terry P Klassen
- Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, Children's Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
| | - David Moher
- Centre for Journalology, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; School of Epidemiology and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
| | - Martin Offringa
- Child Health Evaluative Sciences, The Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Division of Neonatology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
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Matterne U, Theurich MA, Pröbstl S, Pieper D, Wang J, Xu A, Apfelbacher C. Quality of systematic reviews on timing of complementary feeding for early childhood allergy prevention. BMC Med Res Methodol 2023; 23:80. [PMID: 37016313 PMCID: PMC10071735 DOI: 10.1186/s12874-023-01899-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2022] [Accepted: 03/21/2023] [Indexed: 04/06/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Only rigorously prepared analyses can provide the highest level of evidence to inform decision-making. Several recent systematic reviews (SRs) examined the hypothesis that the early introduction of specific allergenic complementary foods (CFs) to infants may lead to a lower incidence of one or more allergic outcomes. However, the methodological rigour and quality of reporting of SRs in this area has not yet been systematically evaluated. METHODS We comprehensively searched PubMed, Medline (Ovid), and Web of Science Core Collection on 13th January 2022, using a pre-specified and tested search syntax for SRs with RCT evidence on the early introduction of allergenic CFs as a means for allergy prevention in infants and children. We examined the quality and risk of bias (RoB) using AMSTAR-2 and ROBIS tools, examined adherence to the Preferred Reporting Items for SRs and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA), and checked whether certainty of the evidence was assessed. RESULTS Twelve SRs were included. Application of both tools resulted in similar overall judgements in terms of direction and extent for nine of the 12 SRs. Nine SRs were found to be of critically low to low quality according to AMSTAR-2 and to be at high RoB according to ROBIS. One SR received a moderate quality rating (AMSTAR-2) and high RoB rating (ROBIS). However, for two SRs, judgements between AMSTAR-2 and ROBIS were at stark variance. Only two SRs fully adhered to the PRISMA checklist. Six SRs evaluated the certainty of the body of RCT evidence. Several SRs failed to consider unpublished studies either by an explicit a priori exclusion or by inadequate search strategies. CONCLUSIONS Well-conducted SRs are important for decision-making and informing guideline development, the quality of their methodology should therefore be considered. The methodological rigour and the reporting quality of SRs on the timing of CF for allergy prevention must be improved. REGISTRATION https://osf.io/7cs4b .
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Affiliation(s)
- Uwe Matterne
- Institute of Social Medicine and Health Systems Research, Medical Faculty, Otto von Guericke University, Leipziger Str. 44, 39120, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Melissa A Theurich
- Institute of Social Medicine and Health Systems Research, Medical Faculty, Otto von Guericke University, Leipziger Str. 44, 39120, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Simone Pröbstl
- Institute of Social Medicine and Health Systems Research, Medical Faculty, Otto von Guericke University, Leipziger Str. 44, 39120, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Dawid Pieper
- Faculty of Health Sciences Brandenburg, Brandenburg Medical School (Theodor Fontane), Institute for Health Services and Health Systems Research, Rüdersdorf, Germany
- Center for Health Services Research, Brandenburg Medical School (Theodor Fontane), Rüdersdorf, Germany
| | - Jiancong Wang
- Institute of Social Medicine and Health Systems Research, Medical Faculty, Otto von Guericke University, Leipziger Str. 44, 39120, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Anna Xu
- University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Christian Apfelbacher
- Institute of Social Medicine and Health Systems Research, Medical Faculty, Otto von Guericke University, Leipziger Str. 44, 39120, Magdeburg, Germany.
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6
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Verdugo-Paiva F, Vergara C, Ávila C, Castro J, Cid J, Contreras V, Jara I, Jiménez V, Lee MH, Muñoz M, Rojas-Gómez AM, Rosón-Rodríguez P, Serrano-Arévalo K, Silva-Ruz I, Vásquez-Laval J, Zambrano-Achig P, Zavadzki G, Rada G. COVID-19 L·OVE repository is highly comprehensive and can be used as a single source for COVID-19 studies. J Clin Epidemiol 2022; 149:195-202. [PMID: 35597369 PMCID: PMC9116966 DOI: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2022.05.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2021] [Revised: 04/05/2022] [Accepted: 05/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Background and Objective The coronavirus disease 2019 Living OVerview of Evidence (COVID-19 L·OVE) is a public repository and classification platform for COVID-19 articles. The repository contains more than 430,000 articles as of September 20, 2021 and intends to provide a one-stop shop for COVID-19 evidence. Considering that systematic reviews conduct high-quality searches, this study assesses the comprehensiveness and currency of the repository against the total number of studies in a representative sample of COVID-19 systematic reviews. Methods Our sample was generated from all the studies included in the systematic reviews of COVID-19 published during April 2021. We estimated the comprehensiveness of COVID-19 L·OVE repository by determining how many of the individual studies in the sample were included in the COVID-19 L·OVE repository. We estimated the currency as the percentage of studies that was available in the COVID-19 L·OVE repository at the time the systematic reviews conducted their own search. Results We identified 83 eligible systematic reviews that included 2,132 studies. COVID-19 L·OVE had an overall comprehensiveness of 99.67% (2,125/2,132). The overall currency of the repository, that is, the proportion of articles that would have been obtained if the search of the reviews was conducted in COVID-19 L·OVE instead of searching the original sources, was 96.48% (2,057/2,132). Both the comprehensiveness and the currency were 100% for randomized trials (82/82). Conclusion The COVID-19 L·OVE repository is highly comprehensive and current. Using this repository instead of traditional manual searches in multiple databases can save a great amount of work to people conducting systematic reviews and would improve the comprehensiveness and timeliness of evidence syntheses. This tool is particularly important for supporting living evidence synthesis processes.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - C Vergara
- Epistemonikos Foundation, Santiago, Chile
| | - C Ávila
- Epistemonikos Foundation, Santiago, Chile
| | - J Castro
- Faculty of Medicine, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - J Cid
- School of Dentistry, Faculty of Medicine, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | | | - I Jara
- Epistemonikos Foundation, Santiago, Chile
| | - V Jiménez
- Faculty of Medicine, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - M H Lee
- Faculty of Medicine, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - M Muñoz
- Faculty of Medicine, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - A M Rojas-Gómez
- Epistemonikos Foundation, Santiago, Chile; Unidad de investigación en medicina estomatológica preventiva y social (UIMEPS), Universidad del Magdalena, Santa Marta, Colombia
| | | | | | - I Silva-Ruz
- School of Dentistry, Faculty of Medicine, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | | | | | - G Zavadzki
- School of Medicine, Federal University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - G Rada
- Epistemonikos Foundation, Santiago, Chile; UC Evidence Center, Cochrane Chile Associated Center, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile; Internal Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
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Florez ID, Amer YS, McCaul M, Lavis JN, Brouwers M. Guidelines developed under pressure. The case of the COVID-19 low-quality "rapid" guidelines and potential solutions. J Clin Epidemiol 2021; 142:194-199. [PMID: 34780983 PMCID: PMC8590473 DOI: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2021.11.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/25/2021] [Accepted: 11/06/2021] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Ivan D Florez
- Department of Pediatrics, Universidad de Antioquia, Calle 67 # 53-108, 050001, Medellin, Colombia; School of Rehabilitation Science, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.
| | - Yasser Sami Amer
- Pediatrics Department, King Khalid University Hospital, King Saud University Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Clinical Practice Guidelines Unit, Quality Management Department, King Saud University Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Research Chair for Evidence-Based Health Care and Knowledge Translation, Deanship of Scientific Research, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Alexandria Center for Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Guidelines, Alexandria University Medical Council, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.
| | - Michael McCaul
- Centre for Evidence-based Health Care, Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Department of Global Health, Stellenbosch University, South Africa.
| | - John N Lavis
- McMaster Health Forum and Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact, McMaster University, 3H28, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario, L8S 4L8, Canada; Africa Centre for Evidence, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa.
| | - Melissa Brouwers
- School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
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