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Extending the PRISMA statement to equity-focused systematic reviews (PRISMA-E 2012): explanation and elaboration

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the PRISMA-Equity Bellagio group, Welch, Vivian, Petticrew, Mark, Petkovic, Jennifer, Moher, David, Waters, Elizabeth, White, Howard, Tugwell, Peter·2015·International Journal for Equity in Health
DOI 10.1186/s12939-015-0219-2PMC PMC4599721
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Abstract

BACKGROUND: The promotion of health equity, the absence of avoidable and unfair differences in health outcomes, is a global imperative. Systematic reviews are an important source of evidence for health decision-makers, but have been found to lack assessments of the intervention effects on health equity. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) is a 27 item checklist intended to improve transparency and reporting of systematic reviews. We developed an equity extension for PRISMA (PRISMA-E 2012) to help systematic reviewers identify, extract, and synthesise evidence on equity in systematic reviews. METHODS AND FINDINGS: In this explanation and elaboration paper we provide the rationale for each extension item. These items are additions or modifications to the existing PRISMA Statement items, in order to incorporate a focus on equity. An example of good reporting is provided for each item as well as the original PRISMA item. CONCLUSIONS: This explanation and elaboration document is intended to accompany the PRISMA-E 2012 Statement and the PRISMA Statement to improve understanding of the reporting guideline for users. The PRISMA-E 2012 reporting guideline is intended to improve transparency and completeness of reporting of equity-focused systematic reviews. Improved reporting can lead to better judgement of applicability by policy makers which may result in more appropriate policies and programs and may contribute to reductions in health inequities. To encourage wide dissemination of this article it is accessible on the International Journal for Equity in Health, Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, and Journal of Development Effectiveness web sites.

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  • PRISMA 2020 is not intended to inform the reporting of systematic review protocols, for which a separate statement is available (PRISMA-P 2015).

    “Furthermore, PRISMA 2020 is not intended to inform the reporting of systematic review protocols, for which a separate statement is available (PRISMA for Protocols (PRISMA-P) 2015 statement [47,48]).”

    From The PRISMA 2020 statement: An updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews (2021) · cites this paper as [48]

    The Introduction describes the original PRISMA checklist and the PRISMA-E 2012 equity extension; the Discussion addresses the scope of that extension. Neither section addresses PRISMA 2020’s intended use or identifies PRISMA-P 2015 as the separate guideline for protocols (searched: “PRISMA-P 2015 protocols” and “protocol reporting guideline separate statement”). (LLM, conf=0.76)

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Authors
the PRISMA-Equity Bellagio group, Welch, V., Petticrew, M., Petkovic, J., Moher, D., Waters, E., White, H., & Tugwell, P.
Affiliations
  • Bruyère (CA)
  • London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (GB)
  • Ottawa Hospital (CA)
  • The University of Melbourne (AU)
  • Global Development Network (IN)
  • University of Ottawa (CA)
Corresponding author
Welch, Vivian
ORCID
Venue
International Journal for Equity in Health
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2015-10-08
Volume
14
Issue
1
Pages
92-92
ISSN
1475-9276 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1186/s12939-015-0219-2
PMC
PMC4599721
OpenAlex
W2160598596
Cited by
114
References
17
Citations by year
2026: 8 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 2
FWCI
0.88
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • International Journal for Equity in Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • LSHTM Research Online (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) (acceptedVersion)
  • uO Research (University of Ottawa) (submittedVersion, public-domain)
Funders
  • Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CA) (meetings grant)
  • Rockefeller Foundation (US) (Bellagio conference 2012)
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
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Delphi Technique in Research
Keywords
health equity, reporting guidelines, systematic review reporting, health disparities, reporting transparency
MeSH terms
Health Equity, Review Literature as Topic, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Checklist

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