Publications by authors named "Melissa Sharp"

Background: Scientific publications have been growing exponentially, contributing to an oversaturated information environment. Quantifying a research output's impact and reach cannot be solely measured by traditional metrics like citation counts as these have a lag time and are largely focused on an academic audience. There is increasing recognition to consider 'alternative metrics' or altmetrics to measure more immediate and broader impacts of research.

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Background: High-income countries offer social assistance (welfare) programs to help alleviate poverty for people with little or no income. These programs have become increasingly conditional and stringent in recent decades based on the premise that transitioning people from government support to paid work will improve their circumstances. However, many people end up with low-paying and precarious jobs that may cause more poverty because they lose benefits such as housing subsidies and health and dental insurance, while incurring job-related expenses.

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The Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) evidence to decision (EtD) framework provides a structured and transparent approach for clinical guideline developers to use when formulating recommendations. Understanding how stakeholders use the EtD framework will inform how best to provide future training and support. This scoping review objective is to identify the key characteristics of how the GRADE EtD framework is used and identify studies on perception of use by those involved in developing clinical guidelines.

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Background: Evidence synthesis is used by decision-makers in various ways, such as developing evidence-based recommendations for clinical guidelines. Clinical guideline development groups (GDGs) typically discuss evidence synthesis findings in a multidisciplinary group, including patients, healthcare providers, policymakers, etc. A recent mixed methods systematic review (MMSR) identified no gold standard format for optimally presenting evidence synthesis findings to these groups.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to improve the Right Review tool, an online resource that helps users select suitable methods for summarizing research evidence in both quantitative and qualitative studies.
  • A modified Delphi method involved feedback from experts worldwide, with 24 participants in the first round and 12 in the second round; they assessed the importance of guiding questions and definitions related to evidence synthesis.
  • The final version of the Right Review tool will include 42 items for guiding questions, definitions, and outputs, making it easier to choose appropriate review methods, with a release expected in early 2025.
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  • Observational studies are essential for understanding health inequities, but it's unclear how well they report equity-related factors in their design and analysis.
  • The authors reviewed 16,828 articles from 2020 to 2022, selecting 320 studies to analyze their focus on populations facing inequities and data collection methods.
  • Findings showed that while many studies acknowledged health equity, only a small percentage effectively reported key design aspects related to equity, indicating a significant gap in the methodology of health equity research.
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  • The study examines researcher motivations for conducting equity-related health research during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • A sample of 320 studies was reviewed, revealing key motivations such as addressing health disparities, improving access through social determinants, and filling knowledge gaps.
  • By understanding these motivations, the findings aim to inform the development of tailored guidance to support researchers focused on health equity.
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Importance: Observational (nonexperimental) studies that aim to emulate a randomized trial (ie, the target trial) are increasingly informing medical and policy decision-making, but it is unclear how these studies are reported in the literature. Consistent reporting is essential for quality appraisal, evidence synthesis, and translation of evidence to policy and practice.

Objective: To assess the reporting of observational studies that explicitly aimed to emulate a target trial.

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Background: Observational studies are increasingly used to inform health decision-making when randomised trials are not feasible, ethical or timely. The target trial approach provides a framework to help minimise common biases in observational studies that aim to estimate the causal effect of interventions. Incomplete reporting of studies using the target trial framework limits the ability for clinicians, researchers, patients and other decision-makers to appraise, synthesise and interpret findings to inform clinical and public health practice and policy.

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Objectives: To evaluate the support from the available guidance on reporting of health equity in research for our candidate items and to identify additional items for the Strengthening Reporting of Observational studies in Epidemiology-Equity extension.

Study Design And Setting: We conducted a scoping review by searching Embase, MEDLINE, CINAHL, Cochrane Methodology Register, LILACS, and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information up to January 2022. We also searched reference lists and gray literature for additional resources.

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Background: Addressing persistent and pervasive health inequities is a global moral imperative, which has been highlighted and magnified by the societal and health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Observational studies can aid our understanding of the impact of health and structural oppression based on the intersection of gender, race, ethnicity, age and other factors, as they frequently collect this data. However, the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) guideline, does not provide guidance related to reporting of health equity.

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Background: Clinical guidelines should be based on a thorough evaluation of the evidence and generally include a rating of the quality of evidence and assign a strength to recommendations. Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) guidance warns against making strong recommendations when the certainty of the evidence is low or very low, but has identified five paradigmatic situations (e.g.

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Background And Objectives: We investigated the developing methods of reporting guidelines in the EQUATOR (Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research) Network's database.

Methods: In October 2018, we screened all records and excluded those not describing reporting guidelines from further investigation. Twelve researchers performed duplicate data extraction on bibliometrics, scope, development methods, presentation, and dissemination of all publications.

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Introduction: Clinical guideline development often involves a rigorous synthesis of evidence involving multidisciplinary stakeholders with different priorities and knowledge of evidence synthesis; this makes communicating findings complex. Summary formats are typically used to communicate the results of evidence syntheses; however, there is little consensus on which formats are most effective and acceptable for different stakeholders.

Methods: This mixed-methods systematic review (MMSR) aimed to evaluate the effectiveness and acceptability (e.

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: Evidence syntheses, often in the form of systematic reviews, are essential for clinical guideline development and informing changes to health policies. However, clinical guideline development groups (CGDG) are multidisciplinary, and participants such as policymakers, healthcare professionals and patient representatives can face obstacles when trying to understand and use evidence synthesis findings. Summary formats to communicate the results of evidence syntheses have become increasingly common, but it is currently unclear which format is most effective for different stakeholders.

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Background: How research findings are presented through domestic news can influence behaviour and risk perceptions, particularly during emergencies such as the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Monitoring media communications to track misinformation and find information gaps is an important component of emergency risk communication. Therefore, this study investigated the traditional media coverage of nine selected COVID-19 evidence-based research reports and associated press releases (PRs) published during the initial phases of the pandemic (April to July 2020) by one national agency.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the global imperative to address health inequities. Observational studies are a valuable source of evidence for real-world effects and impacts of implementing COVID-19 policies on the redistribution of inequities. We assembled a diverse global multi-disciplinary team to develop interim guidance for improving transparency in reporting health equity in COVID-19 observational studies.

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Article Synopsis
  • Researchers conducted a survey to understand why many authors don’t use the STROBE guidelines for reporting observational studies.
  • They found that only 15% of the survey participants shared their thoughts, and discovered four main themes about how people view the guidelines.
  • The study suggests that there should be better communication and support for researchers, especially those just starting out, to encourage them to use STROBE more.
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Objectives: To assess the intention of using a Writing Aid software, which integrates four research reporting guidelines (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials, Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses, Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology and STrengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology-nutritional epidemiology) and their Elaboration & Explanation (E&E) documents during the write-up of research in Microsoft Word compared with current practices.

Design: Two-arms crossover randomised controlled trial with no blinding and no washout period.

Setting: Face-to-face or online sessions.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to find out what influences authors' use of the STROBE guidelines for reporting their research.
  • Researchers sent out an online survey to study authors and collected data on their awareness and experiences with STROBE.
  • The results showed that many authors either didn't know about STROBE or had never used it, but those who did often learned about it from journals and peers.
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Objectives: The STrengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) statement provides guidance on reporting observational studies. Many extensions have been created for specialized methods or fields. We determined endorsement prevalence and typology by journals in extension-related fields.

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