Article type
Year
Abstract
Background: Identifying studies for inclusion in systematic reviews of public health interventions requires a comprehensive search strategy, usually including multiple databases. Increasingly, consideration has also been given to identifying studies only published in the Chinese language and only cited in Chinese databases. Searching such databases can be challenging for non-Chinese speaking authors as it requires the use of Chinese characters.
Objectives: To describe the challenges, and assess the value of searching for studies of interventions in Chinese databases based on the recent Cochrane review 'Community wide interventions for increasing physical activity’.
Methods: In the published protocol 24 databases were listed but these did not include a specialist Chinese database. One expert advised that relevant studies were undertaken in China. Subsequently five Chinese databases were searched: CAJD, CCND, CPCD, CJSS, and CDFD through http://www.global.cnki.net/. Searching, screening, translation and data extraction were assisted by a Chinese epidemiologist.
Results: The search (January 1995 to December 2009) yielded 124 hits and resulted in 4 included studies that were unique to these databases. These represented 16% (4 of 25) of the review’s included studies. Furthermore, the Chinese studies represented 33% (3 of 9) of the most intensive studies included and 67% of studies from low-income countries (4 of 6). The papers tended to be brief and required contact with authors for clarification and confirmation of important information.
Conclusions: The additional searches of the six Chinese databases provided further complexity to an already complex and comprehensive search strategy. The search strategy was less sophisticated and was limited by challenges in translation of search terms from English to Chinese. Despite these challenges, the strategy added further studies of value to the review which would not have been included otherwise. We recommend that, where indicated, searching of Chinese databases be undertaken.
Objectives: To describe the challenges, and assess the value of searching for studies of interventions in Chinese databases based on the recent Cochrane review 'Community wide interventions for increasing physical activity’.
Methods: In the published protocol 24 databases were listed but these did not include a specialist Chinese database. One expert advised that relevant studies were undertaken in China. Subsequently five Chinese databases were searched: CAJD, CCND, CPCD, CJSS, and CDFD through http://www.global.cnki.net/. Searching, screening, translation and data extraction were assisted by a Chinese epidemiologist.
Results: The search (January 1995 to December 2009) yielded 124 hits and resulted in 4 included studies that were unique to these databases. These represented 16% (4 of 25) of the review’s included studies. Furthermore, the Chinese studies represented 33% (3 of 9) of the most intensive studies included and 67% of studies from low-income countries (4 of 6). The papers tended to be brief and required contact with authors for clarification and confirmation of important information.
Conclusions: The additional searches of the six Chinese databases provided further complexity to an already complex and comprehensive search strategy. The search strategy was less sophisticated and was limited by challenges in translation of search terms from English to Chinese. Despite these challenges, the strategy added further studies of value to the review which would not have been included otherwise. We recommend that, where indicated, searching of Chinese databases be undertaken.