Other publications and stories

05 Dec 2024

Evaluation of a strategic academic-government partnership to advance COVID-19 clinical practice guidelines access and uptake in South Africa

The authors of this publication used Cochrane’s KT Framework to map and analyse COVID-19 response activities instituted by a strategic academic-government partnership to supportEIDMduring the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa.

Peer-reviewed article

20 Nov 2024

Home visits for preterm/low birthweight infants in South Africa: qualitative evidence synthesis

The authors' objective was to inform a national guideline on LHW home visits as part of the Global Evidence, Local Adaptation (GELA) project, they conducted a rapid qualitative evidence synthesis exploring the acceptability, feasibility and equitability of this intervention for preterm and LBW babies

Peer-reviewed article

19 Sep 2024

Higher fiber higher carbohydrate diets better than lower carbohydrate lower fiber diets for diabetes management: Rapid review with meta-analyses

The authors of this publication compared the cardiometabolic effects of diets higher in both fiber and carbohydrate with lower carbohydrate lower fiber diets in type 1 or type 2 diabetes

Peer-reviewed article

12 Aug 2024

Systematic reviews of clinical laboratory studies: pilot risk of bias tool developed by consensus

This paper describes the development of a new pilot risk of bias tool that the authors expect to be a valuable instrument for researchers to appraise evidence from clinical laboratory studies which aim to demonstrate a relationship between clinical characteristics and laboratory parameters.

Peer-reviewed article

30 Jun 2024

The impact of guideline recommended protein intake on mortality and length of intensive care unit and hospital stay in critically ill adults: a systematic review

In this review, the authors' objectives were to assess to which extent reaching the protein target of 1.2 g/kg/day for critically ill adults (according to guidelines recommended values) affects important clinical outcomes.

Peer-reviewed article

28 Jun 2024

Assessing qualitative data richness and thickness: Development of an evidence-based tool for use in qualitative evidence synthesis

Existing tools do not address explicitly the assessment of both data richness and thickness in the context of qualitative evidence synthesis. To address this gap, the authors developed, piloted, and conducted initial user testing of a richness and thickness assessment tool.

Peer-reviewed article

26 Jun 2024

Drug-resistant tuberculosis case-finding strategies: scoping review

In this scoping review, the authors assessed the available literature on drug-resistant tuberculosis case-finding strategies.

Peer-reviewed article

21 May 2024

Intention-to-treat analyses and missing outcome data: a tutorial

This tutorial focuses on “intention-to-treat” analyses and missing outcome data in systematic reviews.

Peer-reviewed article

15 May 2024

Challenging the current hypothesis that thrombosis is responsible for the post-COVID-19 condition

The authors of this article conclude that there remains no current reliable evidence to support the hypothesis of a persistent prothrombotic state underlying the symptoms of post-COVID-19 condition (PCC).

Peer-reviewed article

04 Apr 2024

Use of qualitative research in World Health Organisation guidelines: a document analysis

The authors of this publication describe and appraise how qualitative research has been used to inform World Heath Organization guidance since 2020.

Peer-reviewed article

27 Mar 2024

A synthesis of qualitative evidence of barriers and facilitators in implementing guidelines for TB testing in healthcare settings

The authors of this publication identified, appraised and synthesized qualitative evidence exploring the barriers and facilitators to implementing TB testing guidelines.

Peer-reviewed article

22 Mar 2024

A rapid overview of systematic reviews on the effects of palm oil intake compared with intake of other vegetable oils on mortality and cardiovascular health in children and adults

This rapid overview is aimed at people making decisions that require an understanding of the available research evidence on the effects of palm oil intake on cardiovascular health.

Peer-reviewed article

18 Mar 2024

An evaluation of the recommendations for primary nutrition research addressing noncommunicable disease using the EPICOT+ framework: A cross-sectional descriptive meta-research study of Cochrane nutrition systematic reviews

This study aimed to describe and summarize the research recommendations for primary research made in Cochrane nutrition systematic reviews (SRs).

Peer-reviewed article

13 Mar 2024

A rapid overview of systematic reviews on the effects of coconut oil intake compared with intake of other vegetable oils on mortality and cardiovascular health in children and adults

The objective of this review was to rapidly identify and summarize existing evidence from published systematic reviews on the relationships between coconut oil intake and mortality or cardiovascular health in children and adults, and to assess the methodological quality of these reviews.

Dissemination products

11 Mar 2024

The India brain infections guidelines project: Global evidence for local application

This guidelines project will build upon the Brain Infections Global group's attempts to improve diagnosis and management, using a formal guideline development process, including a systematic structure for evidence summaries and consensus, and dissemination to relevant stakeholders across India

Peer-reviewed article

27 Feb 2024

A rapid overview of systematic reviews on the effects of palm oil intake compared with intake of other vegetable oils on mortality and cardiovascular health in children and adults

The objective of this review was to rapidly identify and summarize existing evidence from published systematic reviews on the relationships between palm oil intake and mortality or cardiovascular health in children and adults, and to assess the methodological quality of these systematic reviews.

Peer-reviewed article

23 Feb 2024

The COVID guidelines India project: A rapid living evidence synthesis during a pandemic in a LMIC setting

This team in India set up a national and international collaboration preparing guidance in real time to help guide clinical practice in the country during a pandemic setting.

Peer-reviewed article

15 Feb 2024

GRADE Concept 7: issues and insights linking guideline recommendations to trustworthy essential medicine lists

This GRADE concept article, jointly developed by key stakeholders from the guidelines and EMLs field, identified key conceptual issues and potential solutions to support the continued advancement of trustworthy EMLs.

Peer-reviewed article

23 Jan 2024

Exploring trial publication and research waste in COVID-19 randomised trials of hydroxychloroquine, corticosteroids, and vitamin D: a meta-epidemiological cohort study

Researchers aimed to determine the proportion of registered randomised trials of common COVID-19 treatments that were published and to describe the characteristics of these trials to examine the association between trial characteristics, publication status and research waste.

Peer-reviewed article

23 Jan 2024

Menu labeling and portion size control to improve the out-of-home food environment: A scoping review

The authors conducted this scoping review to map the body of evidence (BoE) addressing the effects of menu labeling and portion size control interventions in the out-of-home food environment and to summarize the research gaps in this evidence base.

Peer-reviewed article

18 Jan 2024

Infection prevention and control measures to reduce the transmission of mpox: a systematic review

The authors of this review analysed and evaluated evidence regarding the effectiveness of airborne and droplet interventions and case home isolation measures in reducing or preventing the transmission of mpox based on synthesis of available literature.

Peer-reviewed article

02 Jan 2024

Building capacity for network meta-analysis in Sub-Saharan Africa: reflections and future direction

The authors of this publication describe and reflect on two courses that build network meta-analysis (NMA) capacity and aim to address NMA literacy in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Peer-reviewed article

04 Dec 2023

Effectiveness of the BNT162b2 vaccine in preventing morbidity and mortality associated with COVID-19 in children aged 5 to 11 years: a systematic review and meta-analysis

A rapid systematic review, based on Cochrane rapid review methodology was conducted to assess the effectiveness of two 10μg doses of BNT162b2 vaccine in preventing morbidity and mortality associated with COVID-19 in children aged 5 to 11 years.

Peer-reviewed article

05 Sep 2023

Cluster-randomized controlled trials: a tutorial

This tutorial focuses on cluster-randomized controlled trials (cluster-RCTs). What cluster-RCTs are, why they might be used, and how to include data from cluster-RCTs in systematic reviews.

Peer-reviewed article

10 Jul 2023

A health systems approach to critical care delivery in low-resource settings: a narrative review

In this narrative review the authors examine critical care capacity building in low-income countries from a health systems perspective

Peer-reviewed article

05 Jul 2023

Use of hospital services by patients with chronic conditions in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis

The objective of this publication was to estimate the prevalence of individual chronic conditions and multimorbidity among adults admitted to hospital in sub–Saharan Africa.

Peer-reviewed article

30 May 2023

Effects of policies or interventions that influence the school food environment on children’s health and nonhealth outcomes: a systematic review

This systematic review aimed to assess the effects of implementing policies or interventions that influence the school food environment on children’s health and nonhealth outcomes

Peer-reviewed article

04 May 2023

Patient adherence to tuberculosis treatment in the Indian subcontinent: systematic review and meta-synthesis of qualitative research

How well patients adhere to their tuberculosis (TB) treatment influences their recovery and development of drug resistance, but influences on adherence are multiple and often competing. The authors synthesised qualitative studies from a setting in the Indian subcontinent to understand the dimensions and dynamics involved to help inform service provision.

Peer-reviewed article

03 May 2023

Systematic review of the prevalence of Long COVID

The authors of this review analysed and evaluated evidence to determine the prevalence of persistent symptoms, functional disability, or pathological changes in adults or children at least 12 weeks post infection from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

Peer-reviewed article

22 Dec 2022

Factors contributing to pre-treatment loss to follow-up in adults with pulmonary tuberculosis: a qualitative evidence synthesis of patient and healthcare worker perspectives

The authors of this publication identified, appraised, and synthesised evidence on the perspectives of patients and healthcare workers on factors contributing to PTLFU in adults with pulmonary TB

Peer-reviewed article

11 Nov 2022

Safety of COVID-19 Pfizer-BioNtech (BNT162b2) mRNA vaccination in adolescents aged 12–17 years: A systematic review and meta-analysis

The authors of this publication reviewed the safety profile of the BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccine in adolescents using mostly real-world data to assist decision-making.

Peer-reviewed article

14 Oct 2022

Should all pregnant women take calcium supplements in Nepal? GRADE evidence to policy assessment

This review aimed to assess whether the current evidence supports the blanket supplementation of calcium to prevent pre-eclampsia among pregnant women in Nepal

Peer-reviewed article

07 Oct 2022

Air and surface sampling for monkeypox virus in a UK hospital: an observational study

New study finds that monkeypox virus can spread widely within specialist hospital isolation rooms

Peer-reviewed article

08 Sep 2022

Storyboarding HIV infected young people’s adherence to antiretroviral therapy in lower- to upper middle-income countries: a new-materialist qualitative evidence synthesis

In this qualitative evidence synthesis review, the authors study the complex configuration of different agents that impact therapy adherence of young people living with perinatal infections of HIV.

Peer-reviewed article

29 Aug 2022

Identifying and managing problematic trials: a Research Integrity Assessment (RIA) tool for randomized controlled trials in evidence synthesis

Ensuring research integrity of studies included in evidence synthesis is an approach that helps to provide evidence closer to the unbiased truth and improves respect of human rights in evidence synthesis. In this paper, the author team explains the rationale and application of a Research Integrity Assessment tool for randomized controlled trials for the update of a Cochrane Review.

Peer-reviewed article

04 Aug 2022

Strategies to detect and manage latent tuberculosis infection among household contacts of pulmonary TB patients in high TB burden countries - a systematic review and meta-analysis

The objective of this systematic review was to summarise latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) management strategies among household contacts of bacteriologically confirmed pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) patients in high-TB burden countries

Peer-reviewed article

08 Jul 2022

Resources supporting trustworthy, rapid and equitable evidence synthesis and guideline development: results from the COVID-19 evidence network to support decision-making (COVID-END)

COVID-19 and subsequent infodemic represents an unprecedented global challenge for evidence synthesis and guideline development. The authors present consolidated resources to facilitate trustworthy, rapid and equitable evidence synthesis, health technology assessments and guidelines for public health and clinical practice.

Peer-reviewed article

18 May 2022

Is routine Vitamin A supplementation still justified for children in Nepal? Trial synthesis findings applied to Nepal national mortality estimates

The WHO has recommended Vitamin A supplementation for children in low- and middle-income countries for many years to reduce child mortality. Nepal still practices routine Vitamin A supplementation. The authors examined the potential current impact of these programs using national data in Nepal combined with an update of the mortality effect estimate from a meta-analysis of RCTs.

Peer-reviewed article

21 Mar 2022

Missed opportunities for diagnosis and treatment in patients with TB symptoms: a systematic review

This systematic review was conducted with the hypothesis that underdiagnosis is largely secondary to patient drop out along the diagnostic and care pathway.

Peer-reviewed article

16 Mar 2022

Effects of interventions for preventing road traffic crashes: an overview of systematic reviews

Road traffic crashes (RTCs) are among the eight leading causes of death globally. Strategies and policies have been put in place by many countries to reduce RTCs and to prevent RTCs and related injuries/deaths.

Peer-reviewed article

10 Mar 2022

Suicide rates and suicidal behaviour in displaced people: a systematic review

Refugees, and other forcibly displaced people, face mental distress and may be disproportionately affected by risk factors for suicide. Little is known about suicidal behaviour in these highly-mobile populations because collecting timely, relevant, and reliable data is challenging.

Peer-reviewed article

30 Nov 2021

Active case finding for tuberculosis in India: a syntheses of activities and outcomes reported by the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme

This review evaluated the outcomes for the components of the ACF campaign against the NTEP’s minimum indicators and elicited the challenges faced in implementation.

Peer-reviewed article

17 Nov 2021

GRADE guidance 24 optimizing the integration of randomized and non-randomized studies of interventions in evidence syntheses and health guidelines

This is the 24th in the ongoing series of articles describing the GRADE approach for assessing the certainty of a body of evidence in systematic reviews and health technology assessments and how to move from evidence to recommendations in guidelines

Peer-reviewed article

19 Oct 2021

Testing for saturation in qualitative evidence syntheses: an update of HIV adherence in Africa

When do we have enough qualitative research on a topic?

Peer-reviewed article

15 Jul 2021

Plague transmission from corpses and carcasses

Knowing whether human corpses can transmit plague will inform policies for handling the bodies of those who have died of the disease. Literature was analyzed to evaluate risk for transmission of Yersinia pestis, the causative agent of plague, from human corpses and animal carcasses.

Peer-reviewed article

28 May 2021

Effects of community-based antiretroviral therapy initiation models on HIV treatment outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis

The authors conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine the effect of offering ART initiation in the community on HIV treatment outcomes.

Peer-reviewed article

05 May 2021

Enhancing public health systematic reviews with diagram visualization

Using diagrams to help the reader go straight to the essence of a systematic review.

Peer-reviewed article

11 Feb 2021

A mega-aggregation framework synthesis of the barriers and facilitators to linkage, adherence to ART and retention in care among people living with HIV

This review aims to make sense of existing qualitative evidence syntheses that explore the barriers and facilitators of adherence to antiretroviral treatment.

Peer-reviewed article

Collaborating in response to COVID-19: editorial and methods initiatives across Cochrane

With the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, health decision-makers needed trustworthy evidence to help answer many questions, and they needed it quickly. During 2020, the Cochrane community worked with partners to find ways to respond to this situation and meet the needs of evidence users.

10 Dec 2020

06 Aug 2020

Evidence synthesis workshops: moving from face- to- face to online learning

This article describes the approach, experiences and lessons learnt from converting a face- to- face workshop to a 6- week online course designed for healthcare professionals in Africa.

Peer-reviewed article

01 Jun 2020

Should healthcare personnel in nursing homes without respiratory symptoms wear facemasks for primary prevention of COVID-19? A rapid review

Internationally, there are conflicting recommendations regarding the use of facemasks by asymptomatic personnel in long-term care facilities for primary prevention (when no cases have yet been identified) of COVID-19 infection.

Peer-reviewed article

22 May 2020

Ventilation techniques and risk for transmission of coronavirus disease, including COVID-19

Reviewing multiple streams of evidence regarding the benefits and harms of ventilation techniques for coronavirus infections, including that causing COVID-19.

Peer-reviewed article

07 May 2020

Transmission of respiratory viruses when using public ground transport: A rapid review to inform public health recommendations during the COVID-19 pandemic

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, evidence was needed to inform strategies for limiting COVID-19 transmission on public transport.

Peer-reviewed article

23 Mar 2020

Covid-19: six million doses of hydroxychloroquine donated to US despite lack of evidence

Director of READ-IT & CIDG Co-ordinating Editor, Paul Garner, is quoted in the recent BMJ article (published 23 March 2020)

Article

17 Jan 2020

The TRANSFER Approach for assessing the transferability of systematic review findings

This paper describes the TRANSFER Approach, a novel approach for supporting collaboration between review authors and stakeholders from the beginning of the review process to systematically and transparently consider factors that may influence the transferability of systematic review findings.

Peer-reviewed article

05 Dec 2019

Moving towards universal health coverage: Strengthening the evidence ecosystem for the South African health system

Health policy and systems research (HPSR) guides health system reforms and is essential for South Africa (SA)’s progress towards universal coverage of high-quality healthcare.

Peer-reviewed article

12 Nov 2019

Variation in the observed effect of Xpert MTB/RIF testing for tuberculosis on mortality: a systematic review and analysis of trial design considerations

Most studies evaluating the effect of Xpert MTB/RIF testing for tuberculosis (TB) concluded that it did not reduce overall mortality compared to usual care. We conducted a systematic review to assess whether key study design and execution features contributed to earlier identification of patients with TB and decreased pre-treatment loss to follow-up, thereby reducing the potential impact of Xpert MTB/RIF testing.

Peer-reviewed article

04 Sep 2019

WHO guidance for refugees in camps: systematic review

The circumstances of people living in refugee camps means that they have distinct medical care requirements. Our objective is to describe clinical guidance in published WHO guidelines that refer to people living in refugee camps; and how evidence and context are used and reported in making recommendations.

Peer-reviewed article

02 Aug 2019

Systematic review of genetic factors in the etiology of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in African populations

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), one of the most aggressive cancers, is endemic in Sub-Saharan Africa, constituting a major health burden.

Peer-reviewed article

11 Jun 2019

A rapid research needs appraisal methodology to identify evidence gaps to inform clinical research priorities in response to outbreaks—results from the Lassa fever pilot

Infectious disease epidemics are a constant threat, and while we can strengthen preparedness in advance, inevitably, we will sometimes be caught unaware by novel outbreaks.

Peer-reviewed article

31 May 2019

Prevention and treatment of acute malnutrition in humanitarian emergencies: a multi-organisation collaboration to increase access to synthesised evidence

This project was designed to make the evidence from relevant systematic reviews about malnutrition as accessible as possible to support evidence-based decision-making and to guide future research on the prevention and treatment of acute malnutrition in humanitarian emergencies.

Peer-reviewed article

20 Mar 2019

Diagnosing tuberculosis, Cochrane Special Collections

This Special Collection has been superceded, and the latest version was published 24 March 2020

Tuberculosis (TB) causes more deaths globally than any other infectious disease and is a top 10 cause of death worldwide.

Article

12 Mar 2019

Patient Blood Management Recommendations from the 2018 Frankfurt Consensus Conference

To develop a set of evidence-based recommendations for patient blood management (PBM) and for research.

Peer-reviewed article

07 Feb 2019

Maintaining relevance in HIV systematic reviews: an evaluation of Cochrane reviews

Research turnover in the HIV field is rapid, and as a result, maintaining high-quality, up-to-date, and relevant systematic reviews is a challenge. One approach is to frequently update published reviews.

Peer-reviewed article

31 Jan 2019

Purposive sampling in a qualitative evidence synthesis: a worked example from a synthesis on parental perceptions of vaccination communication

The objective of this article is to describe the development and application of a sampling framework for a qualitative evidence synthesis on vaccination communication.

Peer-reviewed article

10 Jan 2019

Being HIV positive and staying on antiretroviral therapy in Africa: A qualitative systematic review and theoretical model

This analysis provides a practical theory, arising from thematic synthesis of research, to help understand the dynamics of adherence to ART and engagement in HIV care. This can contribute to the design of service delivery approaches, and informed thinking and action on the part of policy makers, providers, and society: to understand what it is to be HIV-positive in Africa and how attitudes and the health service need to shift to help those with HIV lead ‘normal’ lives.

Peer-reviewed article

14 Dec 2018

Researcher and policymaker dialogue:the Policy BUDDIES Project in Western Cape Province, South Africa

Dialogue and exchange between researchers and policy personnel may increase the use of research evidence in policy

Peer-reviewed article

08 Nov 2018

Plagiarism in research: a survey of African medical journals

The objective of this article is to examine whether regional biomedicaljournals in Africa had policies on plagiarism and procedures to detect it; and to measure the extent ofplagiarism in their original research articles and reviews.

Peer-reviewed article

10 Oct 2018

Foodborne and food-handler norovirus outbreaks: a systematic review

The aim of this review was to assess the contribution of particular foods to definitively foodborne outbreaks of norovirus (NoV), and to describe the contribution of food handlers to NoV outbreaks.

Peer-reviewed article

12 Jun 2018

Revision of the ARRIVE guidelines: rationale and scope

In 2010, the NC3Rs published the Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments (ARRIVE) guidelines to improve the reporting of animal research. Despite considerable levels of support from the scientific community, the impact on the quality of reporting in animal research publications has been limited. This position paper highlights the strategy of an expert working group established to revise the guidelines and facilitate their uptake.

Peer-reviewed article

01 Jun 2018

Evidence synthesis for policy

This report (published June 2018) from the Royal Society and the Academy of Medical Sciences outlines the case for evidence synthesis for policy.

Peer-reviewed article