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A simplified search strategy for identifying randomised controlled trials for systematic reviews of health care interventions : a comparison with more exhaustive strategies
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Royle, Pamela and Waugh, Norman (2005) A simplified search strategy for identifying randomised controlled trials for systematic reviews of health care interventions : a comparison with more exhaustive strategies. BMC Medical Research Methodology, Vol.5 (No.1). p. 23. doi:10.1186/1471-2288-5-23 ISSN 1471-2288.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2288-5-23
Abstract
Background
It is generally believed that exhaustive searches of bibliographic databases are needed for systematic reviews of health care interventions. The CENTRAL database of controlled trials (RCTs) has been built up by exhaustive searching. The CONSORT statement aims to encourage better reporting, and hence indexing, of RCTs. Our aim was to assess whether developments in the CENTRAL database, and the CONSORT statement, mean that a simplified RCT search strategy for identifying RCTs now suffices for systematic reviews of health care interventions.
Methods
RCTs used in the Cochrane reviews were identified. A brief RCT search strategy (BRSS), consisting of a search of CENTRAL, and then for variants of the word random across all fields (random$.af.) in MEDLINE and EMBASE, was devised and run. Any trials included in the meta-analyses, but missed by the BRSS, were identified. The meta-analyses were then re-run, with and without the missed RCTs, and the differences quantified. The proportion of trials with variants of the word random in the title or abstract was calculated for each year. The number of RCTs retrieved by searching with "random$.af." was compared to the highly sensitive search strategy (HSSS).
Results
The BRSS had a sensitivity of 94%. It found all journal RCTs in 47 of the 57 reviews. The missing RCTs made some significant differences to a small proportion of the total outcomes in only five reviews, but no important differences in conclusions resulted. In the post-CONSORT years, 1997–2003, the percentage of RCTs with random in the title or abstract was 85%, a mean increase of 17% compared to the seven years pre-CONSORT (95% CI, 8.3% to 25.9%). The search using random$.af. reduced the MEDLINE retrieval by 84%, compared to the HSSS, thereby reducing the workload of checking retrievals.
Conclusion
A brief RCT search strategy is now sufficient to locate RCTs for systematic reviews in most cases. Exhaustive searching is no longer cost-effective, because in effect it has already been done for CENTRAL.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
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Subjects: | R Medicine > R Medicine (General) | ||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Medicine > Warwick Medical School > Health Sciences > Population, Evidence & Technologies (PET) > Warwick Evidence Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Medicine > Warwick Medical School > Health Sciences Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Medicine > Warwick Medical School |
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Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Information storage and retrieval systems -- Medicine, Medicine -- Research, Systematic reviews (Medical research) | ||||
Journal or Publication Title: | BMC Medical Research Methodology | ||||
Publisher: | Bio Med Central | ||||
ISSN: | 1471-2288 | ||||
Official Date: | 2005 | ||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | Vol.5 | ||||
Number: | No.1 | ||||
Page Range: | p. 23 | ||||
DOI: | 10.1186/1471-2288-5-23 | ||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||
Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) | ||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 23 December 2015 | ||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 23 December 2015 |
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