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The DOI matches its Crossref record; 20 of the 20 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Assessing and presenting summaries of evidence in Cochrane Reviews

Open access
Langendam, Miranda W, Akl, Elie A, Dahm, Philipp, Glasziou, Paul, Guyatt, Gordon, Schünemann, Holger J·2013·Systematic Reviews
DOI 10.1186/2046-4053-2-81PMC PMC3849859
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Abstract

Cochrane Reviews are intended to help providers, practitioners and patients make informed decisions about health care. The goal of the Cochrane Applicability and Recommendation Methods Group (ARMG) is to develop approaches, strategies and guidance that facilitate the uptake of information from Cochrane Reviews and their use by a wide audience with specific focus on developers of recommendations and on healthcare decision makers. This paper is part of a series highlighting developments in systematic review methodology in the 20 years since the establishment of The Cochrane Collaboration, and its aim is to present current work and highlight future developments in assessing and presenting summaries of evidence, with special focus on Summary of Findings (SoF) tables and Plain Language Summaries.A SoF table provides a concise and transparent summary of the key findings of a review in a tabular format. Several studies have shown that SoF tables improve accessibility and understanding of Cochrane Reviews.The ARMG and GRADE Working Group are working on further development of the SoF tables, for example by evaluating the degree of acceptable flexibility beyond standard presentation of SoF tables, developing SoF tables for diagnostic test accuracy reviews and interactive SoF tables (iSoF).The plain language summary (PLS) is the other main building block for dissemination of review results to end-users. The PLS aims to summarize the results of a review in such a way that health care consumers can readily understand them. Current efforts include the development of a standardized language to describe statistical results, based on effect size and quality of supporting evidence.Producing high quality PLS and SoF tables and making them compatible and linked would make it easier to produce dissemination products targeting different audiences (for example, providers, health policy makers, guideline developers).Current issues of debate include optimal presentation formats of SoF tables, the training required to produce SoF tables, and the extent to which the authors of Cochrane Reviews should provide explicit guidance to target audiences of patients, clinicians and policy-makers.

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Figure 1 Snapshot of a Summary of Findings (SoF) table.
Figure 1 Snapshot of a Summary of Findings (SoF) table.CC BY · PubMed Central
Figure 2 Snapshot of an interactive Summary of Findings (iSoF) table.
Figure 2 Snapshot of an interactive Summary of Findings (iSoF) table.CC BY · PubMed Central

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Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. Santesso N, Glenton C, Rader T, Strømme-Nilsen E, Moja L, Pardo JP, Ciapponi A, Schünemann H: A New Format for Plain Language Summaries: Does It Improve Understanding, and is It Useful and Preferable? A Randomized Trial. 2009, Singapore: Cochrane Colloquium, 17
  2. Schünemann HJ, Oxman AD, Higgins JP, Vist GE, Glasziou P, Guyatt GH, on behalf of the Cochrane Applicability and Recommendations Methods Group and the Cochrane Statistical Methods Group: Chapter 11: Presenting results and ‘summary of findings’ tables. Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. Version 5.1.0. Edited by: Higgins JPT, Green S. 2011, The Cochrane Collaboration, Available from http://www.cochrane-handbook.org

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Metadata

Authors
Langendam, M. W., Akl, E. A., Dahm, P., Glasziou, P., Guyatt, G., & Schünemann, H. J.
Affiliations
  • Amsterdam UMC Location University of Amsterdam (NL)
  • American University of Beirut (LB)
  • University of Florida Health (US)
  • Bond University (AU)
  • McMaster University (CA)
Corresponding author
Langendam, Miranda W
ORCID
Venue
Systematic Reviews
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2013-09-23
Volume
2
Issue
1
Pages
81-81
ISSN
2046-4053 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1186/2046-4053-2-81
PMC
PMC3849859
OpenAlex
W2122450633
Cited by
282
References
19
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 31 · 2022: 23 · 2021: 30 · 2020: 22 · 2019: 25 · 2018: 26 · 2017: 23 · 2016: 27 · 2015: 21 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 4
FWCI
21.33
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Systematic Reviews (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Pure Amsterdam UMC (publishedVersion)
  • e-publications@bond (Bond University) (submittedVersion)
  • Bond University Research Portal (Bond University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty › Meta-analysis and systematic reviews
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Clinical practice guidelines implementation
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health Sciences Research and Education
Keywords
summary of findings tables, plain language summaries, evidence summaries, effect size reporting, quality of evidence, guideline development, healthcare decision-making
MeSH terms
Humans, Information Services, Review Literature as Topic, Technology Transfer, Evidence-Based Medicine, Information Dissemination, Research Report

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