![]() ![]() The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) serves as the most comprehensive source of reports of controlled trials. They summarize conclusions about effectiveness and provide a unique collation of the known evidence on a given topic to allow others to easily review the primary studies for any intervention. To do this authors locate, appraise and synthesize evidence from as many relevant scientific studies as possible. In addition to Cochrane Reviews, The Cochrane Library provides other sources of reliable information: other systematic reviews abstracts, technology assessments, economic evaluations, and individual clinical trials – all the current evidence in one single environment.Ī systematic review identifies an intervention for a specific disease or other problem in health care and determines whether or not this intervention works. Cochrane Reviews represent the highest level of evidence on which to base clinical treatment decisions. The Cochrane Library is a collection of databases that contain high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making. They also facilitate investigations of the consistency of evidence across studies and the exploration of differences across studies. By combining information from all relevant studies, meta-analyses can provide more precise estimates of the effects of health care than those derived from the individual studies included within a review (see Chapter 9, Section 9.1.3 ). Meta-analysis is the use of statistical methods to summarize the results of independent studies (Glass 1976). Many systematic reviews contain meta-analyses. The key characteristics of a systematic review are:Ī clearly stated set of objectives with pre-defined eligibility criteria for studies Ī systematic search that attempts to identify all studies that would meet the eligibility criteria Īn assessment of the validity of the findings of the included studies, for example, through the assessment of risk of bias andĪ systematic presentation and synthesis of the characteristics and findings of the included studies. It uses explicit, systematic methods that are selected with a view to minimizing bias, thus providing more reliable findings from which conclusions can be drawn and decisions made (Antman 1992, Oxman 1993). Cochrane Handbook | 1.2.2 What is a systematic review?Ī systematic review attempts to collate all empirical evidence that fits pre-specified eligibility criteria in order to answer a specific research question. ![]()
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