Evidence Synthesis Flashcards
what is a narrative review most useful for?
obtaining a broad perspective on a topi
what is a narrative review?
An account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars &
researchers
what are the steps to doing a narrative review?
review question formulation
searching for relevant studies
deciding which studies to include and exclude
assessing study quality
synthesizing study
what is a thesis literature review?
Identify areas of prior research
Place your original work in the context of existing literature
Describe the relation of each work to the others under consideration
Identify new ways to interpret previous research
Resolve conflicts amongst seemingly contradictory previous studies
what is the purpose of a scoping review?
to map out and summarize existing literature on a broad topic area. It aims to provide an overview of the available evidence, identify key concepts, themes, and gaps in knowledge, and clarify the scope of future research.
what type of research question does a scoping review address?
exploratory
what are the steps to a scoping review?
Identifying the research question
Identifying the relevant studies
Study selection
Charting the data
Collating, summarizing and reporting the result
what is a systematic review?
a rigorous and comprehensive method of summarizing and synthesizing existing evidence on a specific research question or topic. It involves systematically searching, selecting, appraising, and synthesizing relevant studies to provide an unbiased and transparent summary of the available evidence.
Why do we need to conduct a systematic
review?
Conflicting evidence
To determine the best practice
To explore the relationship between an exposure and an outcome
Variation in behavior (clinicians; patients)
To identify research gaps
what do systematic reviews provide the evidence base for?
Clinical practice guidelines
Health technology assessment tools
Policy briefs
Patient decision aids
what is Standardized mean difference (SMD)
Summary statistic when studies all assess the same outcome but
measure it different ways ( all studies measures anxiety but use
different outcome measures)
what is a meta analysis?
a combination of at least 2 studies to produce a
single estimate of the effect of a heath care intervention under
investigatio
what is heterogeneity?
the variability or diversity among the participants, interventions, outcomes, or study designs in a group of studies being analyzed. It indicates differences between the individual studies that are being synthesized or compared.
what is publication bias?
Studies with significant results are more likely to:
* be published
* be published in English
* be cited by others
* produce multiple publications
why does publication bias matter?
Negative studies not being published leads to:
* overestimation of benefit and
* underestimation of harm
