Mapping the Cochrane intervention reviews related to physical activity for chronic noncommunicable disease

Article type
Authors
Grande AJ1, Silva V1, Carvalho APV1, Martimbianco ALC1, Peccin MS1, Atallah AN1
1Brazilian Cochrane Centre, Brazil
Abstract
Background: Chronic Noncommunicable Disease (NCDs) has been growing worldwide and physical activity (PA) has shown to play an important role in preventing and treating.

Objectives: To describe the evidence according to implications for practice and research of the Cochrane systematic reviews (SRs).

Methods: The search strategy was developed for the Cochrane Library to identify all systematic reviews related to NCDs and physical activity until Issue 2, 2012. Agreement proportions between authors were independently assessed by two authors (AJG and VS). Implications for practice were classified in three categories: ‘A’, evidence supporting the intervention as beneficial; ‘B’, evidence supporting the intervention as harmful; and ‘C’, absence of enough evidence to support recommendations. Implications for research were categorized according to recommending or not furthering research. Number of included studies into systematic reviews was also quantified.

Results: Were found 91 references in the first screening (23 protocols; 18 registered titles; 2 SRs were withdrawn); 48 SRs fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Two authors collected the data the agreement between authors were measured by Kappa (0, 64; p = 0.002). Global agreement proportion between evaluators were 0.95 (0.73–1.00) and the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) were 0.99 for the number of included studies. In implication for practice 75% (n = 36) showed the intervention as beneficial, and 25% (n = 12) showed absence of evidence. In Implication for research, 98% (n = 47) recommended furthering research; 2% (n = 1) showed no need for furthering research. The mean of primary studies included in the SRs were 17.8 (CI 95% = 13.5–22.2).

Conclusions: This study showed that most SRs of interventions about PA for NCDs demonstrated to be beneficial for practice, however almost all SRs reported need for furthering research. Despite the level of evidence found on SRs most of authors required new high quality studies.