4 Interventions for HCHHHU: technical report
Figure 2.2 Identification and selection of studies
STAGE 1
Identification of
potential studies
STAGE 2
Application
of inclusion/
exclusion
criteria
|
Searching all 3,441 items identified | ||
|
1 | ||
|
Duplicates removed 304 | ||
|
J |
∖ | |
|
Screening 3,441 - 304 = 3,137 |
Exc.1 552 Exc.2 17 Exc.3 1,858 Exc.4 432 Exc.5 157 Exc.6 24 | |
|
1 |
*Inc. 4 link 28 *Inc. 2 only 9 *Inc. 3 NIF 6 Total 3,083 | |
|
Studies for coding 3,137 - 3,083 = 54 | ||
|
J |
∖ | |
|
After coding 54 |
----------------► Exc.7 44 | |
|
1 |
Γ | |
STAGE 3
Application of
coding
10 studies
included in
in-depth review
and received full
data extraction
* Inc. 2 only - citations marked for full report screening but unable to locate
* Inc. 4 link - represents items linked to other included items
* Inc. 3 NIF - represents items for inclusion in the map but unable to locate
The search was not exhaustive but was narrow
in scope using a limited number of sources and
limited range of search terms. The search was
driven by the population keywords combined with
the intervention keywords (see figure 2.1).
A limited ‘pearl growing’ exercise was undertaken
on the two key conceptual drivers, and this was
used to form the search strings. The keywords
and descriptors were adapted according to the
conventions of each specific database searched. To
identify unpublished literature a ‘grey literature’
database was searched, a limited number of
experts in the field were contacted, and a number
of relevant websites were searched. In addition an
internet search using the Google search engine was
carried out with a limited subset of the keywords.
Full details of the search strategy are given in
Appendix 2.1.
Title and abstracts were imported and entered
into EPPI-Reviewer, the EPPI-Centre’s web-based
software programme for systematic research
synthesis. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were
applied successively to titles and abstracts. Full
reports were obtained for those studies that
appeared to meet the criteria or where we had
insufficient information to be sure. The inclusion and
exclusion criteria were re-applied to the full text
reports once obtained (see figure 2.2 for details).