Article type
Year
Abstract
Background: With regard to systematic reviews of health care interventions, the Cochrane Library is widely recognized as one of the most useful sources. The reviews carried out within the framework of the Cochrane Collaboration are highly valued because of their thorough searches and their methodological rigour. Although the Cochrane Library had its origin in medicine, many nursing textbooks and articles on evidence-based nursing also refer to the Cochrane Library. Therefore, we investigated the relevance of the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews for the nursing field.The following research questions were addressed:
how many reviews in the CDSR are about nursing interventions?
what kind of nursing interventions have been the subject of a Cochrane review?
how many studies (and how many RCTs) are usually included in these nursing reviews?
how many participants are involved in these nursing reviews?
what are the final conclusions of these nursing reviews?
Objectives: To describe the number of studies, the number of participants and the conclusions of systematic reviews concerning nursing interventions from the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.
Methods: A simple search with the word 'nursingÂ’ was performed in issue 3, 2002 of the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Reviews were checked for their relevance for nursing. Each included review was assessed on topic, number of studies included, number of participants involved and final conclusions.
Results: Issue 3, 2002 of the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews contained 1,456 complete reviews; the search with 'nursing' resulted in 268 hits, 160 of which were finally included in the analysis. A variety of nursing interventions have been the subject of a Cochrane review. The mean number of included studies was 10, varying from 0 to 52, with a median of 7; 8 reviews included no studies. In 57% of the reviews less than 100 participants were involved. Firm conclusions were reached in 40% of the reviews.
Conclusions: The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews is a valuable source of evidence about nursing interventions or to develop a research agenda in case of inconclusive reviews.
how many reviews in the CDSR are about nursing interventions?
what kind of nursing interventions have been the subject of a Cochrane review?
how many studies (and how many RCTs) are usually included in these nursing reviews?
how many participants are involved in these nursing reviews?
what are the final conclusions of these nursing reviews?
Objectives: To describe the number of studies, the number of participants and the conclusions of systematic reviews concerning nursing interventions from the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.
Methods: A simple search with the word 'nursingÂ’ was performed in issue 3, 2002 of the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Reviews were checked for their relevance for nursing. Each included review was assessed on topic, number of studies included, number of participants involved and final conclusions.
Results: Issue 3, 2002 of the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews contained 1,456 complete reviews; the search with 'nursing' resulted in 268 hits, 160 of which were finally included in the analysis. A variety of nursing interventions have been the subject of a Cochrane review. The mean number of included studies was 10, varying from 0 to 52, with a median of 7; 8 reviews included no studies. In 57% of the reviews less than 100 participants were involved. Firm conclusions were reached in 40% of the reviews.
Conclusions: The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews is a valuable source of evidence about nursing interventions or to develop a research agenda in case of inconclusive reviews.