Systematic reviews in spinal cord injury: A step-by-step guide for rehabilitation science learners and clinicians

The Journal of Spinal Cord Medicine, 2021 · DOI: 10.1080/10790268.2021.1923261 · Published: January 1, 2021

Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Research Methodology & Design

Simple Explanation

The COVID-19 pandemic has created an opportunity for rehabilitation science learners and clinicians to evaluate research in spinal cord injury (SCI) rehabilitation. This paper provides a step-by-step guide for conducting systematic reviews (SRs) in SCI, outlining the process for rehabilitation science learners and clinicians. An SR aims to answer a specific question and integrates available evidence to address research, clinical care, or quality improvement in the SCI field.

Study Duration

Not specified

Participants

Not specified

Evidence Level

Guide for conducting systematic reviews

Key Findings

1
Conducting SRs in SCI research requires systematic steps to ensure comprehensive, reliable, and reproducible findings, limiting bias and improving conclusion precision.
2
The ten steps for conducting SRs include team formation, research question formulation, inclusion/exclusion criteria determination, protocol registration, search strategy development, screening, quality assessment, data extraction, findings summary, and result dissemination.
3
Assembling an interprofessional team with diverse expertise is crucial for ensuring a quality SR that can influence practice and inform clinical practice recommendations.

Research Summary

This article presents a step-by-step guide to conducting SRs in SCI rehabilitation, offering directions and examples for learners and clinicians to conduct robust reviews. The paper identifies tools and methodologies to aid SR teams in conducting rigorous reviews and producing clear documentation, summarization, and reporting of SR results. The quality of a systematic review is ultimately limited by the strength and relevance of the primary question and the quality and lack of bias in the available evidence.

Practical Implications

Improved Evidence Synthesis

Following the ten steps detailed in the guide can significantly improve the quality of evidence synthesis in SCI rehabilitation research, leading to more reliable inferences.

Informed Clinical Practice

The guide helps clinicians and learners develop a broad-based understanding of various diagnostic and interventional therapies, psychosocial aspects, and medical treatments in SCI rehabilitation.

Enhanced Healthcare Policymaking

Systematic reviews conducted using the proposed steps can inform clinical guidelines and healthcare policymaking by synthesizing current research relatively quickly.

Study Limitations

1
Heterogeneity among included SCI studies is inevitable due to varying clinical characteristics of patients and interventions.
2
SRs in SCI rehabilitation require interprofessional experts to interpret the summarized effect sizes and results.
3
The quality of the systematic review is ultimately limited by the strength and relevance of the primary question and the quality and lack of bias in the available evidence.

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