What Blocks the Production of Cochrane Reviews in China?

Article type
Authors
Wang L, Li Y, Liu M, Li J
Abstract
Objective: The production of Cochrane Systematic Review (CSR) in China is still very few since the first one was published in Cochrane Library by Chinese author Liu Ming in 1996. In order to identify the real barriers which block the production of CSR in China, and the people who would like to involve in the CSR production, we conducted a survey.

Methods: A survey had been conducted by a questionnaire in 9 workshops on CSR held around the country from 1999 to 2001. 826 medical staffs (including clinicians, researchers and medical students) from 18 provinces in China were investigated. The data was collected and analyzed by FoxPro 6.0 and SPSS 10.0.

Results: 715 questionnaires (86.6%) were collected. The trainees were mainly from the hospitals, research institutions or medical universities, over 70% of them from 25 to 45 years old, and half of them with M.D., Ph.D. or Master Degree. They only had some basic understanding about Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM), Cochrane Collaboration and CSR before the training. Their major aims to attend the workshops were to learn how to prepare the CSR. But most of them thought completing a CSR was very difficult. The major problems blocking the production of CSR were "lack of time and funds", "hard to get information and literatures", "language barriers", "lack of opportunities to be trained", "difficulty to contact with the CSR groups", "hard to get help", "less access to Internet" sequentially. Since above reasons, the protocols registered in Cochrane Review groups from China were very few, and the published Cochrane Reviews by Chinese authors were fewer.

Conclusions: Chinese Cochrane Center made great efforts to identify and overcome these major problems blocking the CSR production, including: searching more stable funds, training courses of CSR and data searching, improving the quality of clinical trials and Cochrane Reviews in China, establishing the published/unpublished/ongoing databases for Chinese clinical trials, promoting the international cooperation, etc. Through their 5 years very hard working, things are getting better gradually.