Article type
Year
Abstract
Background: Evaluating the effectiveness of interventions designed to increase the physical activity of whole communities is often a difficult and complex task, requiring considerable expertise and investment, and often constrained by methodological limitations. These limitations, in turn, create additional challenges when these studies are used in systematic reviews as they hinder the confidence, precision and interpretation of results.
Objectives: The objective of this paper is to summarise the methodological challenges posed in conducting systematic reviews. of interventions to help inform those conducting future primary research and systematic reviews.
Methods: We conducted a Cochrane systematic review of community-wide interventions to increase physical activity and also one of incentive-based activities. We assessed the methodological quality of the included studies. We will investigate these in greater detail, particularly in relation to the potential impact on measures of effect, confidence in results, generalizability of results and general interpretation.
Results: The community-wide review was completed and published in the Cochrane Library. The incentive-based review is in preparation. A logic model was helpful in defining and interpreting the studies for both reviews. Many studies of unsuitable study design were excluded; however several important methodological limitations of the primary studies evaluating physical activity interventions emerged. For the community-wide review these included: the failure to use validated tools to measure physical activity; issues associated with pre and post test designs; inadequate sampling of populations; poor control groups; and intervention and measurement protocols of inadequate duration. We will present the issues common to both reviews.
Conclusions: Evaluating interventions to increase physical activity in a rigorous way is incredibly challenging. These findings reflect these challenges but have important ramifications for researchers conducting primary studies to determine the efficacy of such interventions, as well as for researchers conducting systematic reviews and overviews.
Objectives: The objective of this paper is to summarise the methodological challenges posed in conducting systematic reviews. of interventions to help inform those conducting future primary research and systematic reviews.
Methods: We conducted a Cochrane systematic review of community-wide interventions to increase physical activity and also one of incentive-based activities. We assessed the methodological quality of the included studies. We will investigate these in greater detail, particularly in relation to the potential impact on measures of effect, confidence in results, generalizability of results and general interpretation.
Results: The community-wide review was completed and published in the Cochrane Library. The incentive-based review is in preparation. A logic model was helpful in defining and interpreting the studies for both reviews. Many studies of unsuitable study design were excluded; however several important methodological limitations of the primary studies evaluating physical activity interventions emerged. For the community-wide review these included: the failure to use validated tools to measure physical activity; issues associated with pre and post test designs; inadequate sampling of populations; poor control groups; and intervention and measurement protocols of inadequate duration. We will present the issues common to both reviews.
Conclusions: Evaluating interventions to increase physical activity in a rigorous way is incredibly challenging. These findings reflect these challenges but have important ramifications for researchers conducting primary studies to determine the efficacy of such interventions, as well as for researchers conducting systematic reviews and overviews.