The revised JBI critical appraisal tool for the assessment of risk of bias for cohort studies.

Cohort studies are a robust analytical observational study design that explore the difference between two different cohorts on an outcome, differentiated by their exposure status. Despite being observational in nature, they are often included in systematic reviews of effectiveness, particularly when randomized controlled trials are limited or not feasible. Like all studies included in a systematic review, cohort studies must undergo a critical appraisal process to assess the extent to which a study has considered potential bias in its design, conduct, or analysis.

The revised JBI critical appraisal tool for the assessment of risk of bias for quasi-experimental studies.

Systematic reviews of effectiveness offer a rigorous synthesis of the best evidence available regarding the effects of interventions or treatments. Randomized controlled trials are considered the optimal study design for evaluating the effectiveness of interventions and are the ideal study design for inclusion in a systematic review of effectiveness. In the absence of randomized controlled trials, quasi-experimental studies may be relied on to provide information on treatment or intervention effectiveness.

The 2-week systematic review (2weekSR) method was successfully blind-replicated by another team: a case study.

Objective: To assess the replicability of a 2-week systematic review (index 2weekSR) created with the assistance of automation tools using the fidelity method.

Methods: A Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses compliant SR protocol was developed based on the published information of the index 2weekSR study. The replication team consisted of three reviewers.

The revised JBI critical appraisal tool for the assessment of risk of bias for randomized controlled trials.

JBI recently began the process of updating and revising its suite of critical appraisal tools to ensure that these tools remain compatible with recent developments within risk of bias science. Following a rigorous development process led by the JBI Effectiveness Methodology Group, this paper presents the revised critical appraisal tool for the assessment of risk of bias for randomized controlled trials. This paper also presents practical guidance on how the questions of this tool are to be interpreted and applied by systematic reviewers, while providing topical examples.

Revising the JBI quantitative critical appraisal tools to improve their applicability: an overview of methods and the development process.

JBI offers a suite of critical appraisal instruments that are freely available to systematic reviewers and researchers investigating the methodological limitations of primary research studies. The JBI instruments are designed to be study-specific and are presented as questions in a checklist. The JBI instruments have existed in a checklist-style format for approximately 20 years; however, as the field of research synthesis expands, many of the tools offered by JBI have become outdated.

The "quality" of JBI qualitative research synthesis: a methodological investigation into the adherence of meta-aggregative systematic reviews to reporting standards and methodological guidance.

Introduction: Approaches to the synthesis of qualitative research have existed for more than 20 years and have evolved significantly during that time. One common approach is meta-aggregation, as advocated by JBI. There is now a considerable number of published reviews that claim to follow the JBI approach to meta-aggregation.

Empirical analysis of Zipf's law, power law, and lognormal distributions in medical discharge reports.

Background: Bayesian modelling and statistical text analysis rely on informed probability priors to encourage good solutions.

Objective: This paper empirically analyses whether text in medical discharge reports follow Zipf's law, a commonly assumed statistical property of language where word frequency follows a discrete power-law distribution.

Method: We examined 20,000 medical discharge reports from the MIMIC-III dataset.

Methodological quality of case series studies: an introduction to the JBI critical appraisal tool.

Introduction: Systematic reviews provide a rigorous synthesis of the best available evidence regarding a certain question. Where high-quality evidence is lacking, systematic reviewers may choose to rely on case series studies to provide information in relation to their question. However, to date there has been limited guidance on how to incorporate case series studies within systematic reviews assessing the effectiveness of an intervention, particularly with reference to assessing the methodological quality or risk of bias of these studies.

Strategies to measure and improve emergency department performance: a scoping review.

Background: Over the last two decades, Emergency Department (ED) crowding has become an increasingly common occurrence worldwide. Crowding is a complex and challenging issue that affects EDs' capacity to provide safe, timely and quality care. This review aims to map the research evidence provided by reviews to improve ED performance.

Use and uptake of web-based therapeutic interventions amongst Indigenous populations in Australia, New Zealand, the United States of America and Canada: a scoping review.

Background: Barriers to receiving optimal healthcare exist for Indigenous populations globally for a range of reasons. To overcome such barriers and enable greater access to basic and specialist care, developments in information and communication technologies are being applied. The focus of this scoping review is on web-based therapeutic interventions (WBTI) that aim to provide guidance, support and treatment for health problems.

Rinse-free hand wash for reducing absenteeism among preschool and school children.

Background: Illness-related absenteeism is an important problem among preschool and school children for low-, middle- and high- income countries. Appropriate hand hygiene is one commonly investigated and implemented strategy to reduce the spread of illness and subsequently the number of days spent absent. Most hand hygiene strategies involve washing hands with soap and water, however this is associated with a number of factors that act as a barrier to its use, such as requiring running water, and the need to dry hands after cleaning.

A scoping review of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health promotion programs focused on modifying chronic disease risk factors.

Issue Addressed: Noncommunicable chronic disease underlies much of the life expectancy gap experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Modifying contributing risk factors; tobacco smoking, nutrition, alcohol consumption, physical activity, social and emotional wellbeing (SNAPS) could help close this disease gap. This scoping review identified and describes SNAPS health promotion programs implemented for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia.

Effectiveness and harms of pharmacological interventions for the treatment of delirium in adults in intensive care units after cardiac surgery: a systematic review.

Objective: The objective of this review was to synthesize the best available evidence on the effectiveness and harms of pharmacological interventions for the treatment of delirium in adult patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) after cardiac surgery.

Introduction: Patients who undergo cardiac surgery are at high risk of delirium (incidence: 50-90%). Delirium has deleterious effects, increasing the risk of death and adversely affecting recovery.

Systematic review or scoping review? Guidance for authors when choosing between a systematic or scoping review approach.

Background: Scoping reviews are a relatively new approach to evidence synthesis and currently there exists little guidance regarding the decision to choose between a systematic review or scoping review approach when synthesising evidence. The purpose of this article is to clearly describe the differences in indications between scoping reviews and systematic reviews and to provide guidance for when a scoping review is (and is not) appropriate.

Results: Researchers may conduct scoping reviews instead of systematic reviews where the purpose of the review is to identify knowledge gaps, scope a body of literature, clarify concepts or to investigate research conduct.

Use of GRADE in Australian clinical practice guidelines: a methodological review protocol.

The purpose of this methodological review is to determine whether and to what extent GRADE (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation) methodology has been and is currently being used in Australian clinical practice guidelines.

The development of software to support multiple systematic review types: the Joanna Briggs Institute System for the Unified Management, Assessment and Review of Information (JBI SUMARI).

Aim: Systematic reviews play an important role in ensuring trustworthy recommendations in healthcare. However, systematic reviews can be laborious to undertake and as such software has been developed to assist in the conduct and reporting of systematic reviews. The Joanna Briggs Institute and its collaborating centres consist of thousands of researchers, academics and clinicians across the globe conducting systematic reviews of various types.

Prevalence of mental disorders in Uganda: a systematic review protocol.

The questions to be addressed by this systematic review are.

Adherence of meta-aggregative systematic reviews to reporting standards and methodological guidance: a methodological review protocol.

The objective of the review is to examine Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) qualitative meta-aggregative reviews to determine.

Effectiveness of acupuncture as an adjunct treatment for women with postnatal depression: a systematic review protocol.

The review question is: what is the best available evidence on the effectiveness of acupuncture as an adjunct treatment for women with postnatal depression?

Effectiveness of psychotherapies that engage with the voices of Voice Hearers: a systematic review protocol.

The objective of this review is to identify, evaluate and synthesize relevant research on the effectiveness of psychotherapies that engage Voice Hearers with their voices in order to change the person's quality of life, recovery, coping and distress. More specifically, the objective is to ascertain the effectiveness of this type of intervention with or without any other co-intervention, either pharmacological or non-pharmacological, compared to treatment as usual, for people from a Western or European culture aged 18-65 years who hear voices, regardless of ethnicity.

Effectiveness and harms of pharmacological interventions in the treatment of delirium in adults in intensive care units post cardiac surgery: a systematic review protocol.

The review objective is to synthesize the best available evidence on the effectiveness and harms of pharmacological interventions in the treatment of delirium in adults in intensive care units (ICU) after cardiac surgery.The specific review question is: What is the effectiveness and what are the harms of pharmacological interventions in relation to the duration and severity of delirium episodes, length of stay in ICU, length of stay in hospital, functional capacity and quality of life and mortality for critically ill adult patients treated in intensive care after cardiac surgery?

The prevalence of disability among people with cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease and/or diabetes: a systematic review.

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory disease are noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) that cause extensive social and economic burden worldwide, particularly in low-income and middle-income countries. There is growing recognition of the importance of the disabilities that individuals experience as a consequence of these NCDs.

Objectives: This systematic review examined the prevalence of disabilities associated with cancer, CVD, chronic respiratory disease and diabetes.

Web-based therapeutic interventions for assessing, managing and treating health conditions in Indigenous people: a scoping review protocol.

The objective of the scoping review is to map the international scientific literature on web-based therapeutic interventions (WBTI) used by Indigenous people for assessing, managing and treating health conditions. The focus of this review is WBTIs for a broad range of health conditions, including but not limited to, communicable and non-communicable diseases, mental health conditions (including the broader concept of social and emotional wellbeing), use of harmful substances and gambling.The questions for the scoping review are.