Systematic Review Flashcards
What are narrative review, critical review, literature reviews useful for
Useful for summarising topic area, varying degree of quality, may not have a quality assessment or pre-specified outcomes, more than one reviewer and a pre-specified data-extraction process
What is a systematic review
Is an overview of primary studies which contains a statement of objectives, materials and methods and has been conducted according to explicit and reproducible methodology
What is a meta-analysis
Statistical technique for pooling the results of a number of homogenous studies to produce a summary result.
What is meta-synthesis/meta-study / meta-ethnography
A method for Combining qualitative research
What is the process of systematic review process
1define your research 2 indemnify relevant literature 3 peer review the quality of the included studies 4 extract data and summarise the data 5 analyse data 6 disseminate your findings
How to find the quality of a quantitative study
The degree of bias/systematic error in the design, methodology and analysis
Consider the study design and methodology
Consider the population, intervention and outcomes related to the review question
What 4 types of bias are there
Selection bias,
performance/intervention bias
Detection/measurement bias
Attrition bias
Strengths of systematic review
Rigorous and comprehensive lit’ search. Useful for managing information overload.
Can be useful for resolving uncertainty when the litrierture is conflicting
Methods used to locate, select, appraise and synthesise studies are pre-defined and explicitly reported
Process is replicable
Aims to minimise bias
Weakness’ of systematic review
Publication bias is a threat
SR only ever as good as the primary studies
Limited by search strategy, language ect
May demonstrate a lack of evidence
