Development of Search Strategies for Systematic Reviews: Validation Showed the Noninferiority of the Objective Approach
November 2014
in “
Journal of Clinical Epidemiology
”
TLDR The objective approach for creating search strategies is as effective as the traditional method and might be better and more efficient.
The study assessed the effectiveness of an objective approach for developing search strategies for systematic reviews, comparing it to the traditional conceptual approach used in Cochrane reviews. It involved 13 Cochrane reviews and 470 MEDLINE references. The objective approach, which does not use common study filters, achieved a sensitivity of 96% and was confirmed to be noninferior to the conceptual approach (P<0.002). The original MEDLINE strategies only identified 86% of relevant references, suggesting the objective approach might be superior. The median time to develop a search strategy using the objective approach was 10.5 hours, and for quality assurance, it was 3 hours. Despite some limitations, the study concluded that the objective approach is noninferior, potentially superior, and could save resources while maintaining transparency in evidence-based medicine decisions.
