Excluding non-English publications from evidence-syntheses did not change conclusions: a meta-epidemiological study

Nußbaumer-Streit, Barbara; Klerings, Irma; Dobrescu, Andreea; Persad, Emma; Stevens, Adrienne; Garritty, Chantelle; Kamel, Chris; Affengruber, Lisa; King, Valerie; Gartlehner, Gerald

doi:10.1016/j.jclinepi.2019.10.011

Cited by 223 publications

(156 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Searches were limited to the English language, due to resource constraint and previous experience in the field indicating that other language searches yielded very few, if any additional reviews. 14 Table 3 provides a summary of the health outcomes assessed for each subpopulation.…”

Section: Updating Searches and New Evidence Reviewsmentioning

confidence: 99%

World Health Organization 2020 guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour

Al-Ansari²,

et al. 2020

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ObjectivesTo describe new WHO 2020 guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour.MethodsThe guidelines were developed in accordance with WHO protocols. An expert Guideline Development Group reviewed evidence to assess associations between physical activity and sedentary behaviour for an agreed set of health outcomes and population groups. The assessment used and systematically updated recent relevant systematic reviews; new primary reviews addressed additional health outcomes or subpopulations.ResultsThe new guidelines address children, adolescents, adults, older adults and include new specific recommendations for pregnant and postpartum women and people living with chronic conditions or disability. All adults should undertake 150–300 min of moderate-intensity, or 75–150 min of vigorous-intensity physical activity, or some equivalent combination of moderate-intensity and vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity, per week. Among children and adolescents, an average of 60 min/day of moderate-to-vigorous intensity aerobic physical activity across the week provides health benefits. The guidelines recommend regular muscle-strengthening activity for all age groups. Additionally, reducing sedentary behaviours is recommended across all age groups and abilities, although evidence was insufficient to quantify a sedentary behaviour threshold.ConclusionThese 2020 WHO guidelines update previous WHO recommendations released in 2010. They reaffirm messages that some physical activity is better than none, that more physical activity is better for optimal health outcomes and provide a new recommendation on reducing sedentary behaviours. These guidelines highlight the importance of regularly undertaking both aerobic and muscle strengthening activities and for the first time, there are specific recommendations for specific populations including for pregnant and postpartum women and people living with chronic conditions or disability. These guidelines should be used to inform national health policies aligned with the WHO Global Action Plan on Physical Activity 2018–2030 and to strengthen surveillance systems that track progress towards national and global targets.

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Section: Updating Searches and New Evidence Reviewsmentioning

confidence: 99%

World Health Organization 2020 guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour

Al-Ansari²,

et al. 2020

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“…This concerned only two case studies. It has been proved in previous studies that the exclusion of non-English publications from systematic reviews had a minimal effect on the overall conclusions [57]. We are con dent that none of these limitations changed the overall conclusions of this review.…”

Section: Limitations Of the Reviewmentioning

confidence: 60%

The Incidence of SARS-COV-2 Manifestations in the Central Nervous System: A Rapid Review and Meta-Analysis

Mayr

Glechner

Gartlehner

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by SARS-CoV-2 and presents itself mainly as a respiratory tract infection. However, reports of associated central nervous system (CNS) manifestations are increasing.Methods: We conducted this rapid review to determine the frequency of CNS manifestations of COVID-19 (CNS symptoms, acute cerebrovascular disease, and infectious/inflammatory CNS diseases) and to summarize the current evidence for direct invasion of the CNS by SARS-CoV-2. An information specialist searched Ovid MEDLINE, the CDC: COVID-19 Research Articles Downloadable and WHO COVID-19 Databases, CENTRAL, and Epistemonikos.org on May 13, 2020. Two reviewers screened abstracts and potentially relevant full-text publications independently. The data extraction, assessment of risk of bias,and certainty of evidence using GRADE was done by one reviewer and double-checked by another. If possible and reasonable, a meta-analysis was carried out.Results: We identified 13 relevant studies (four cohort studies, nine case studies) with a total of 866 COVID-19 patients.In a Chinese cohort, dizziness (16.8%; 36 of 214) and headache (13.1%; 28 of 214) were the most common CNS symptoms reported. A meta-analysis of four cohort studies including 851 COVID-19 patients showed an incidence of 3.3% (95% CI: 2.2–4.9) for ischemic stroke (follow-up: one to five weeks). In 13 of 15 encephalitis case studies, PCR testing of the cerebrospinal fluid did not detect any virus components.Conclusion: CNS manifestations occur frequently in patients with COVID-19. It is important to integrate neurologists into the multiprofessional COVID-19 treatment team to detect neurological complications early and to treat them correctly.

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“…These studies have strong potential to be used in the community and should be investigated in a separate systematic review. Recent reviews indicate that only including studies in English has minimal impact on review conclusions [176,177]. We believe this is also the case for this review, particularly due to the overall lack of evidence on biomarkers ready to be evaluated in low-prevalence settings.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Identifying Novel Biomarkers Ready for Evaluation in Low-Prevalence Populations for the Early Detection of Upper Gastrointestinal Cancers: A Systematic Review

et al. 2020

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Introduction Detecting upper gastrointestinal (GI) cancers in primary care is challenging, as cancer symptoms are common, often non-specific, and most patients presenting with these symptoms will not have cancer. Substantial investment has been made to develop biomarkers for cancer detection, but few have reached routine clinical practice. We aimed to identify novel biomarkers for upper GI cancers which have been sufficiently validated to be ready for evaluation in low-prevalence populations. Methods We systematically searched MEDLINE, Embase, Emcare, and Web of Science for studies published in English from January 2000 to October 2019 (PROSPERO registration CRD42020165005). Reference lists of included studies were assessed. Studies had to report on second measures of diagnostic performance (beyond discovery phase) for biomarkers (single or in panels) used to detect pancreatic, oesophageal, gastric, and biliary tract cancers. We included all designs and excluded studies with less than 50 cases/controls. Data were extracted on types of biomarkers, populations and outcomes. Heterogeneity prevented pooling of outcomes. Results We identified 149 eligible studies, involving 22,264 cancer cases and 49,474 controls. A total of 431 biomarkers were identified (183 microRNAs and other RNAs, 79 autoantibodies and other immunological markers, 119 other proteins, 36 metabolic markers, 6 circulating tumour DNA and 8 other). Over half ( n = 231) were reported in pancreatic cancer studies. Only 35 biomarkers had been investigated in at least two studies, with reported outcomes for that individual marker for the same tumour type. Apolipoproteins (apoAII-AT and apoAII-ATQ), and pepsinogens (PGI and PGII) were the most promising biomarkers for pancreatic and gastric cancer, respectively. Conclusion Most novel biomarkers for the early detection of upper GI cancers are still at an early stage of matureness. Further evidence is needed on biomarker performance in low-prevalence populations, in addition to implementation and health economic studies, before extensive adoption into clinical practice can be recommended. Electronic Supplementary Material The online version of this article (10.1007/s12325-020-01571-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Excluding non-English publications from evidence-syntheses did not change conclusions: a meta-epidemiological study

Cited by 223 publications

References 23 publications

World Health Organization 2020 guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour

World Health Organization 2020 guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour

The Incidence of SARS-COV-2 Manifestations in the Central Nervous System: A Rapid Review and Meta-Analysis

Identifying Novel Biomarkers Ready for Evaluation in Low-Prevalence Populations for the Early Detection of Upper Gastrointestinal Cancers: A Systematic Review

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