Article type
Year
Abstract
Background:
Cochrane Reviews should prioritize outcomes important to patients and meaningful to decision making. Incorporation of patient values can improve the outcome selection process. Likewise, when drawing review conclusions, judgements about patients’ values or preferences (VPs) attached to different outcomes should be explicit. However, the identification of relevant studies in this field is complex and there is not a validated search strategy available for this purpose.
Objectives:
To develop a VPs search strategy as part of a research programme in the field of VPs.
Methods:
After exploring how a set of relevant VPs studies are indexed in PubMed, we assembled a list of MeSH (medical subject heading) terms and text words. We tested the search strategy’s performance by checking the number of studies included in five high quality systematic reviews (SR) about VPs that were retrieved by our strategy. If studies were not identified by the strategy, reasons were explored and the strategy was refined accordingly.
Results:
We developed five differentiated thematic blocks of terms for PubMed. These blocks correspond to the different methods and presentation of results for this field (e.g. health-state utility values, quantitative or qualitative narratives, etc.). We will present the refined strategy, plans for its validation, and a descriptive analysis of the results.
Conclusions:
The development of this search strategy will facilitate the location and incorporation of VPs evidence in the process of prioritizing outcomes. Likewise, this information will improve the process of drawing the implications of review findings. This proposal is aligned with GRADE Working Group scope and will enhance usability of Cochrane Reviews in the process of knowledge translation.
Cochrane Reviews should prioritize outcomes important to patients and meaningful to decision making. Incorporation of patient values can improve the outcome selection process. Likewise, when drawing review conclusions, judgements about patients’ values or preferences (VPs) attached to different outcomes should be explicit. However, the identification of relevant studies in this field is complex and there is not a validated search strategy available for this purpose.
Objectives:
To develop a VPs search strategy as part of a research programme in the field of VPs.
Methods:
After exploring how a set of relevant VPs studies are indexed in PubMed, we assembled a list of MeSH (medical subject heading) terms and text words. We tested the search strategy’s performance by checking the number of studies included in five high quality systematic reviews (SR) about VPs that were retrieved by our strategy. If studies were not identified by the strategy, reasons were explored and the strategy was refined accordingly.
Results:
We developed five differentiated thematic blocks of terms for PubMed. These blocks correspond to the different methods and presentation of results for this field (e.g. health-state utility values, quantitative or qualitative narratives, etc.). We will present the refined strategy, plans for its validation, and a descriptive analysis of the results.
Conclusions:
The development of this search strategy will facilitate the location and incorporation of VPs evidence in the process of prioritizing outcomes. Likewise, this information will improve the process of drawing the implications of review findings. This proposal is aligned with GRADE Working Group scope and will enhance usability of Cochrane Reviews in the process of knowledge translation.