Objective:

To aid systematic review authors in investigating clinical aspects of heterogeneity in systematic reviews of controlled trials.

Description:

While there is some consensus on methods in systematic reviews for investigating statistical and methodological heterogeneity, little attention has been paid to clinical aspects of heterogeneity. Clinical heterogeneity may be defined as differences within and between trials that arise from variables related to the patients, intervention, outcome measurements and research setting. Recently, consensus-based recommendations were created to guide reviewers on methods for investigating clinical heterogeneity. This includes recommendations regarding expertise to include in the review process, how to choose variables, statistical methods for investigating the influence of such variables, and how these investigations can be used in forming conclusions or improve the applicability of systematic reviews. We will present these recommendations in detail and allow participants to work through this material with research questions of their own specific interest.