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Does Consideration and Assessment of Effects on Health Equity Affect the Conclusions of Systematic Reviews? A Methodology Study

INTRODUCTION: Tackling health inequities both within and between countries remains high on the agenda of international organizations including the World Health Organization and local, regional and national governments. Systematic reviews can be a useful tool to assess effects on equity in health sta...

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Autores principales: Welch, Vivian, Petticrew, Mark, Ueffing, Erin, Benkhalti Jandu, Maria, Brand, Kevin, Dhaliwal, Bharbhoor, Kristjansson, Elizabeth, Smylie, Janet, Wells, George Anthony, Tugwell, Peter
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3302723/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22427804
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0031360
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author Welch, Vivian
Petticrew, Mark
Ueffing, Erin
Benkhalti Jandu, Maria
Brand, Kevin
Dhaliwal, Bharbhoor
Kristjansson, Elizabeth
Smylie, Janet
Wells, George Anthony
Tugwell, Peter
author_facet Welch, Vivian
Petticrew, Mark
Ueffing, Erin
Benkhalti Jandu, Maria
Brand, Kevin
Dhaliwal, Bharbhoor
Kristjansson, Elizabeth
Smylie, Janet
Wells, George Anthony
Tugwell, Peter
author_sort Welch, Vivian
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: Tackling health inequities both within and between countries remains high on the agenda of international organizations including the World Health Organization and local, regional and national governments. Systematic reviews can be a useful tool to assess effects on equity in health status because they include studies conducted in a variety of settings and populations. This study aims to describe the extent to which the impacts of health interventions on equity in health status are considered in systematic reviews, describe methods used, and assess the implications of their equity related findings for policy, practice and research. METHODS: We conducted a methodology study of equity assessment in systematic reviews. Two independent reviewers extracted information on the reporting and analysis of impacts of health interventions on equity in health status in a group of 300 systematic reviews collected from all systematic reviews indexed in one month of MEDLINE, using a pre-tested data collection form. Any differences in data extraction were resolved by discussion. RESULTS: Of the 300 systematic reviews, 224 assessed the effectiveness of interventions on health outcomes. Of these 224 reviews, 29 systematic reviews assessed effects on equity in health status using subgroup analysis or targeted analyses of vulnerable populations. Of these, seven conducted subgroup analyses related to health equity which were reported in insufficient detail to judge their credibility. Of these 29 reviews, 18 described implications for policy and practice based on assessment of effects on health equity. CONCLUSION: The quality and completeness of reporting should be enhanced as a priority, because without this policymakers and practitioners will continue lack the evidence base they need to inform decision-making about health inequity. Furthermore, there is a need to develop methods to systematically consider impacts on equity in health status that is currently lacking in systematic reviews.
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spelling pubmed-33027232012-03-16 Does Consideration and Assessment of Effects on Health Equity Affect the Conclusions of Systematic Reviews? A Methodology Study Welch, Vivian Petticrew, Mark Ueffing, Erin Benkhalti Jandu, Maria Brand, Kevin Dhaliwal, Bharbhoor Kristjansson, Elizabeth Smylie, Janet Wells, George Anthony Tugwell, Peter PLoS One Research Article INTRODUCTION: Tackling health inequities both within and between countries remains high on the agenda of international organizations including the World Health Organization and local, regional and national governments. Systematic reviews can be a useful tool to assess effects on equity in health status because they include studies conducted in a variety of settings and populations. This study aims to describe the extent to which the impacts of health interventions on equity in health status are considered in systematic reviews, describe methods used, and assess the implications of their equity related findings for policy, practice and research. METHODS: We conducted a methodology study of equity assessment in systematic reviews. Two independent reviewers extracted information on the reporting and analysis of impacts of health interventions on equity in health status in a group of 300 systematic reviews collected from all systematic reviews indexed in one month of MEDLINE, using a pre-tested data collection form. Any differences in data extraction were resolved by discussion. RESULTS: Of the 300 systematic reviews, 224 assessed the effectiveness of interventions on health outcomes. Of these 224 reviews, 29 systematic reviews assessed effects on equity in health status using subgroup analysis or targeted analyses of vulnerable populations. Of these, seven conducted subgroup analyses related to health equity which were reported in insufficient detail to judge their credibility. Of these 29 reviews, 18 described implications for policy and practice based on assessment of effects on health equity. CONCLUSION: The quality and completeness of reporting should be enhanced as a priority, because without this policymakers and practitioners will continue lack the evidence base they need to inform decision-making about health inequity. Furthermore, there is a need to develop methods to systematically consider impacts on equity in health status that is currently lacking in systematic reviews. Public Library of Science 2012-03-13 /pmc/articles/PMC3302723/ /pubmed/22427804 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0031360 Text en Welch et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Welch, Vivian
Petticrew, Mark
Ueffing, Erin
Benkhalti Jandu, Maria
Brand, Kevin
Dhaliwal, Bharbhoor
Kristjansson, Elizabeth
Smylie, Janet
Wells, George Anthony
Tugwell, Peter
Does Consideration and Assessment of Effects on Health Equity Affect the Conclusions of Systematic Reviews? A Methodology Study
title Does Consideration and Assessment of Effects on Health Equity Affect the Conclusions of Systematic Reviews? A Methodology Study
title_full Does Consideration and Assessment of Effects on Health Equity Affect the Conclusions of Systematic Reviews? A Methodology Study
title_fullStr Does Consideration and Assessment of Effects on Health Equity Affect the Conclusions of Systematic Reviews? A Methodology Study
title_full_unstemmed Does Consideration and Assessment of Effects on Health Equity Affect the Conclusions of Systematic Reviews? A Methodology Study
title_short Does Consideration and Assessment of Effects on Health Equity Affect the Conclusions of Systematic Reviews? A Methodology Study
title_sort does consideration and assessment of effects on health equity affect the conclusions of systematic reviews? a methodology study
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3302723/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22427804
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0031360
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