lecture 31 - systematic reviews Flashcards
what are the two main types of reviews and what are their features
narrative review = may be heavily influenced by opinion
systematic review = replicable, transparent and systematic
why are systematic reviews done
- collate evidence and synthesize their results
- done well, systematic review methods reduce bias that may otherwise be encountered with narrative reviews
how are systematic reviews conducted
- formulation of a clear question
- write protocol for the review
- search for relevant studies
- collect data from studies
- assessment of included studies
- synthesis of findings
- interpretation of results
what are the protocol for a systematic review
- question
- relevance
- objectives
- search strategy
- so someone could find the same results - selection criteria
- inclusion and exclusion criteria of studies - eligibility screen
- why you excluded particular studies and included - risk of bias
- data extraction
- data synthesis
what is meta analysis
if the results of the individual studies are combined to produce overall statistics
why may meta analysis not be appropriate
if the designs of the studies are too different, the outcomes are not sufficiently similar of it there are concerns about the quality of the studies
what is heterogeneity in meta analysis
when something varies across different groups it is heterogeneous
what is homogeneity
when something is consistent across different groups it is homogeneous
