- Identify the following variables from the following publications (20 marks).
Variables
a. Population
b. Intervention
c. Control
d. Primary outcomes
e. Secondary outcomes
Publications
a. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30538796
b. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30463577
c. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30412065 - Indicate whether the primary outcomes in each of the publications that you identified in
question 1 are appropriate. Justify each of your answers in a maximum of 300 words (15
marks). - A systematic reviewer performs a systematic review in which only English articles from
MEDLINE and EMBASE are searched. Is this appropriate? Justify your answer in a maximum
of 200 words (5 marks). - What is the Boolean operator used in the following situations? Justify your answer in
maximum of 200 words for both questions (5 marks).
a. Combine free text and controlled vocabulary terms for the domain ‘stroke’.
b. Combine the domains ‘rehabilitation’ and ‘stroke’ in order to identify only articles
which contain both these domains. - Classify the following as different types of outcomes (binary, continuous, ordinal, count,
time-to-event outcomes) (5 marks).
a. Number of patients with graft failure at one year.
b. Change in SF-36 (health-related quality of life score) in 6 months.
c. Number of pain episodes in 3 months.
d. Length of intensive care unit stay (days).
e. Overall survival at maximal follow-up.
SURG0098_CW_2: Total marks: 50
Notes/Instructions (in addition to the general instructions available in the assignment instructions):
a. You are a systematic reviewer performing systematic reviews on the intervention versus
control in the population specified in the individual study. The outcomes for this systematic
review are listed for each study. As in real life, you will find that information may be fully
available in a study, partially available, in which case please indicate any partially available
information (indicating clearly that the information is not sufficient for meta-analysis), or
may not be available at all, in which case, please indicate clearly that the information is
missing completely.
b. All comparisons are intervention versus control unless specified.
c. ‘Appropriate format’ indicates format appropriate for conducting a meta-analysis. This also
means that you have to identify clearly whether the data extracted is for analysis as binary
outcome, continuous outcome, count outcome, or time-to-event outcome.
d. Validated scale means that this should be validated independently in a different study (i.e.
external validation).
e. Choose the most appropriate analysis that should be used to decide whether someone
should receive intervention or control. Marks will be reduced for reporting inappropriate
analysis. - Comparison of different chemotherapy agents in the treatment of advanced or metastastic
gastric cancer (25 marks)
a. Outcomes:
i. Overall survival
ii. Proportion of people with serious adverse events
iii. Number of serious adverse events
iv. Health-related quality of life (using a validated scale)
v. Progression-free survival
vi. Proportion of people with any adverse event (includes all adverse events of
any severity)
vii. Number of adverse events
b. Timing of outcomes: survival outcomes and health-related quality of life – until
maximum follow-up, others at the end of the treatment or within 3 months after the
end of the treatment)
c. Publications
i. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29488121
ii. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27764906 - Comparison of different methods to improve outcomes in the treatment of acute myocardial
infarction (25 marks)
a. Outcomes:
i. Overall survival
ii. Proportion of people with serious adverse events
iii. Number of serious adverse events
iv. Health-related quality of life (using a validated scale)
v. Recurrent heart attacks
vi. Proportion of people with any adverse event (includes all adverse events of
any severity)
vii. Number of adverse events
b. Timing of outcomes: survival, health-related quality of life, recurrent heart attack –
until maximum follow-up, others at the end of the treatment or within 3 months
after the end of the treatment)
c. Publications
i. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29869460
ii. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28682422
Sample Solution
