Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions

A"Cochrane Collaboration is a leader in conducting scientific systematic reviews, and the contributors to this book are a group of acclaimed scientists from all over the world, making this is a unique publication in this field.A" (Doody's, 2009)

Dr Julian Higgins is a statistician at the MRC Biostatistics Unit, a senior epidemiologist at the public health genetics unit of Cambridge Genetics Knowledge Park, and a co-convenor of the Cochrane Statistical Methods Group. Sally Green is Associate Professor in the faculty of medicine, nursing, and health sciences at Monash University, Melbourne. She is the director of the Australasian Cochrane Centre and an active Cochrane reviewer.

Contents Preface xiii Acknowledgements xv The Handbook editors xvii Major contributors xix Part 1 COCHRANE REVIEWS 1 1 Introduction 3 Sally Green, Julian PT Higgins, Philip Alderson, Mike Clarke, Cynthia D Mulrow and Andrew D Oxman 1.1 The Cochrane Collaboration 3 1.2 Systematic reviews 6 1.3 About this Handbook 7 1.4 Contributors to the Handbook 8 1.5 Chapter information 9 1.6 References 9 2 Preparing a Cochrane review 11 Edited by Sally Green and Julian PT Higgins 2.1 Rationale for protocols 11 2.2 Format of a Cochrane review 12 2.3 Logistics of doing a review 13 2.4 Publication of Cochrane reviews in print journals and books 24 2.5 Publication of previously published reviews as Cochrane reviews 26 2.6 Declaration of interest and commercial sponsorship 26 2.7 Chapter information 29 2.8 References 29 3 Maintaining reviews: updates, amendments and feedback 31 Julian PT Higgins, Sally Green and Rob JPM Scholten 3.1 Introduction 31 3.2 Some important definitions 32 3.3 Important dates associated with Cochrane reviews 39 3.4 Considerations when updating a Cochrane review 42 3.5 'What's new' and History tables 46 3.6 Incorporating and addressing feedback in a Cochrane review 48 3.7 Chapter information 48 3.8 References 49 4 Guide to the contents of a Cochrane protocol and review 51 Edited by Julian PT Higgins and Sally Green 4.1 Introduction 52 4.2 Title and review information (or protocol information) 52 4.3 Abstract 55 4.4 Plain language summary 55 4.5 Main text 55 4.6 Tables 70 4.7 Studies and references 72 4.8 Data and analyses 74 4.9 Figures 76 4.10 Sources of support to the review 77 4.11 Feedback 77 4.12 Appendices 78 4.13 Chapter information 78 4.14 References 78 Part 2 GENERAL METHODS FOR COCHRANE REVIEWS 81 5 Defining the review question and developing criteria for including studies 83 Edited by Denise O'Connor, Sally Green and Julian PT Higgins 5.1 Questions and eligibility criteria 84 5.2 Defining types of participants: which people and populations? 85 5.3 Defining types of interventions: which comparisons to make? 86 5.4 Defining types of outcomes: which outcome measures are most important? 87 5.5 Defining types of study 90 5.6 Defining the scope of a review question (broad versus narrow) 91 5.7 Changing review questions 93 5.8 Chapter information 93 5.9 References 94 6 Searching for studies 95 Carol Lefebvre, Eric Manheimer and Julie Glanville on behalf of the Cochrane Information Retrieval Methods Group 6.1 Introduction 96 6.2 Sources to search 98 6.3 Planning the search process 118 6.4 Designing search strategies 128 6.5 Managing references 142 6.6 Documenting and reporting the search process 144 6.7 Chapter information 146 6.8 References 147 7 Selecting studies and collecting data 151 Edited by Julian PT Higgins and Jonathan J Deeks 7.1 Introduction 151 7.2 Selecting studies 152 7.3 What data to collect 156 7.4 Sources of data 163 7.5 Data collection forms 164 7.6 Extracting data from reports 167 7.7 Extracting study results and converting to the desired format 170 7.8 Managing data 182 7.9 Chapter information 183 7.10 References 183 8 Assessing risk of bias in included studies 187 Edited by Julian PT Higgins and Douglas G Altman on behalf of the Cochrane Statistical Methods Group and the Cochrane Bias Methods Group 8.1 Introduction 188 8.2 What is bias? 188 8.3 Tools for assessing quality and risk of bias 190 8.4 Introduction to sources of bias in clinical trials 193 8.5 The Cochrane Collaboration's tool for assessing risk of bias 194 8.6 Presentation of assessments of risk of bias 202 8.7 Summary assessments of risk of bias 202 8.8 Incorporating assessments into analyses 206 8.9 Sequence generation 210 8.10 Allocation sequence concealment 214 8.11 Blinding of participants, personnel and outcome assessors 217 8.12 Incomplete outcome data 219 8.13 Selective outcome reporting 226 8.14 Other potential threats to validity 230 8.15 Chapter i