Center for Evidence Based Health Care, Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Department of Global Health, Stellenbosch University, Francie Van Zyl drive, Cape Town, 7505, South Africa.
University of California, San Francisco, USA.
Syst Rev. 2019 Feb 7;8(1):46. doi: 10.1186/s13643-019-0960-5.
Research turnover in the HIV field is rapid, and as a result, maintaining high-quality, up-to-date, and relevant systematic reviews is a challenge. One approach is to frequently update published reviews.
We evaluated the methods and relevance of all HIV systematic reviews and protocols published in the Cochrane Library over a 16-year period (2000-2016) to determine the need to update published reviews or complete of reviews in progress.
Of 148 published reviews and protocols, 129 (87%) were identified as not for updating or progression to publication, mostly due to research questions which were either entirely outdated or addressed questions in an outdated manner (N = 89; 60%); this was anticipated for older reviews, but was found also to be the case for recent publications. Some research questions were also inadequately conceptualized, particularly when complex pragmatic trials or behavioral interventions were included.
We suggest that authors clearly characterize interventions and synthesis approaches in their review protocols. In research fields, such as HIV, where questions change frequently, systematic reviews and protocols should be regularly re-evaluated to ensure relevance to current questions. This process of re-evaluation should be incorporated into the methods of living systematic reviews.
艾滋病毒领域的研究更新迅速，因此，要保持高质量、最新且相关的系统评价是一项挑战。一种方法是频繁更新已发表的综述。
我们评估了在 16 年期间（2000-2016 年）发表在 Cochrane 图书馆中的所有艾滋病毒系统评价和方案的方法和相关性，以确定是否需要更新已发表的综述或完成正在进行的综述。
在 148 篇已发表的综述和方案中，有 129 篇（87%）被认为不需要更新或进展到发表阶段，主要是由于研究问题已经完全过时或以过时的方式解决（89 篇；60%）；这在较旧的综述中是可以预见的，但在最近的出版物中也发现了这种情况。一些研究问题的概念化也不充分，特别是当包括复杂的实用试验或行为干预时。
我们建议作者在综述方案中清楚地描述干预措施和综合方法。在问题经常变化的艾滋病毒等研究领域，系统评价和方案应定期重新评估，以确保与当前问题的相关性。这一重新评估过程应纳入正在进行的系统评价方法中。
