Article type
Year
Abstract
Background: Health Evidence™ supports the public health workforce in searching for, interpreting, and applying research evidence to practice. The www.healthevidence.org repository offers 4500+ quality-appraised public health relevant systematic reviews, including nearly 700 Cochrane Reviews.
Objectives:
1. Identify gaps in availability of high quality public health relevant reviews.
2. Identify opportunities for creation of systematic reviews of reviews (SRRs).
Methods: Searches of 18 topics on www.healthevidence.org produced an inventory of public health review literature from 2011-2016. Gaps and areas of wealth were identified based on review methodological quality (strong/moderate/weak), availability of Cochrane Reviews, and availability of SRRs within each topic area.
Results: Topic areas with the largest quantity of methodologically strong quality reviews include (Cochrane, total): chronic diseases (72, 293), physical activity (30, 246), nutrition (69, 246), adult health (99, 235), youth health (58, 196), and mental health (38, 180). For the topic areas of chronic diseases, physical activity, and nutrition, a growing number of SRRs already exist (13, 10, and 11, respectively). Topic areas with less than five SRRs and a considerable quantity of strong quality reviews include (Cochrane, total): communicable disease and infection (55/130), adult health (99, 235), reproductive health and healthy families (46, 113) and, social determinants of health (12, 44).Topic areas with a paucity of reviews that highlight opportunities for creation of strong quality reviews include (strong quality, total): emergency preparedness and response (2, 9), dental health (29, 39), and environmental health (30, 40).
Conclusion: SRRs are valuable in guiding policy and practice. Methodologically strong systematic review evidence exists in a number of public health relevant topic areas; Health Evidence™ is well positioned to support the conduct of reviews of reviews in multiple topic areas. There are also a number of topics for which there are an opportunity for Cochrane Reviews to be conducted.
Objectives:
1. Identify gaps in availability of high quality public health relevant reviews.
2. Identify opportunities for creation of systematic reviews of reviews (SRRs).
Methods: Searches of 18 topics on www.healthevidence.org produced an inventory of public health review literature from 2011-2016. Gaps and areas of wealth were identified based on review methodological quality (strong/moderate/weak), availability of Cochrane Reviews, and availability of SRRs within each topic area.
Results: Topic areas with the largest quantity of methodologically strong quality reviews include (Cochrane, total): chronic diseases (72, 293), physical activity (30, 246), nutrition (69, 246), adult health (99, 235), youth health (58, 196), and mental health (38, 180). For the topic areas of chronic diseases, physical activity, and nutrition, a growing number of SRRs already exist (13, 10, and 11, respectively). Topic areas with less than five SRRs and a considerable quantity of strong quality reviews include (Cochrane, total): communicable disease and infection (55/130), adult health (99, 235), reproductive health and healthy families (46, 113) and, social determinants of health (12, 44).Topic areas with a paucity of reviews that highlight opportunities for creation of strong quality reviews include (strong quality, total): emergency preparedness and response (2, 9), dental health (29, 39), and environmental health (30, 40).
Conclusion: SRRs are valuable in guiding policy and practice. Methodologically strong systematic review evidence exists in a number of public health relevant topic areas; Health Evidence™ is well positioned to support the conduct of reviews of reviews in multiple topic areas. There are also a number of topics for which there are an opportunity for Cochrane Reviews to be conducted.