Addressing Challenges When Applying GRADE to Public Health Guidelines: A Scoping Review Protocol and Pilot Analysis

This is a protocol for a scoping review that aims to determine how guideline authors using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluations (GRADE) approach have addressed previously identified challenges related to public health. The Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodology for scoping reviews will be followed. We will search and screen titles of guidelines for all languages published in 2013–2021 in: the GIN library, BIGG database, Epistemonikos GRADE guidelines repository, GRADEpro Database, MAGICapp, NICE and WHO websites. Two reviewers will independently screen full texts of the documents identified. The following information will be extracted: methods used for identifying different stakeholders and incorporating their perspectives; methods for identification and prioritization of non-health outcomes; methods for determining thresholds for decision-making; methods for incorporating and grading evidence from non-randomized studies; methods for addressing concerns with conditional recommendations in public health; methods for reaching consensus; additional methodological concerns; and any modifications made to GRADE. A combination of directed content analysis and descriptive statistics will be used for data analysis, and the findings presented narratively in a tabular and graphical form. In this protocol, we present the pilot results from 13 identified eligible guidelines issued between January and August 2021. We will publish the full review results when they become available.

Token Economy for Sustainable Education in the Future: A Scoping Review

This research aims to examine the use of a token economy for education sustainability. It presents a recent review and evaluation of the token economy used among young learners and learners with special needs for behavior management and learning engagement in teaching. Online articles from Google Scholar, ERIC, and UKMLibrary were used. The terms used for reviewing the articles were token economy, token systems, positive reinforcement, and rewards. The scoping review protocol was used for this study. A total of 60 relevant articles published from 2000 to 2020 were filtered and grouped into three major themes for review: behavior management, learning engagement, and types of tokens. Findings suggested that although previous research had examined the impact of a token economy on behavior management and learning engagement, there was limited research on the correlation between teaching methods and social fairness. Teachers as the main participants in assessing the effectiveness of a token economy, were also lacking. Additionally, the use of social and physical reinforcers was found to assist in obtaining the desired behaviors and learning engagement from participants, thereby enabling them to sustain learners’ interest in future lessons.

Effectiveness of Physiotherapy to Promote Motor Recovery in Individuals with Stroke: A Systematic Review Protocol

Introduction: Motor function is essential in our daily lives, one of the most common impairments caused by stroke is loss of functional movement. Over 70% of stroke survivors have motor or other neurological functional disabilities. However, rehabilitation of motor function suffered from a stroke can be rather difficult due to the complexity of organs and systems related to motor function, as well as the neural system that supported motor function. In particularly, previous evidence for the effectiveness of physiotherapy, a commonly prescribed intervention method for people with stroke, that recover motor function in people following a stroke is varied and limited in the chronic rehabilitation phase and therefore has never been reviewed systematically. With the progress of study in neurology and the development of novel tools for rehabilitation, results from more and more clinical trials are now available, thus here justifying conducting a systematic review. Methods and analysis: This systematic review protocol is developed in accordance with the methodology recommended by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols, as well as the Cochrane handbook for systematic reviews of interventions. Relevant studies will be identified by searching the databases. We will perform searches for relevant studies in databases, including PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, and Web of Science, Physiotherapy Evidence Database and Cochrane Library databases. The reference lists of included articles and reviews will be searched manually. The date range parameters used in searching all databases will be restricted between January 2001 and January 2021. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published will be included. The language used in the articles included was restricted to English. The GRADE (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation system from the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions) approach will be used to systematically appraise the quality of methodology. We will assess the risk of bias of the RCTs included using the Cochrane Collaboration’s tool and provide a qualitative synthesis. After that, we will consider conducting a meta-analysis if the final data across outcomes shows sufficient homogeneity. Ethics and dissemination: No ethical approval is needed as the proposed study does not involve the collection of primary data, and the results of this review will be disseminated via peer-reviewed publications and conference presentations. Trial registration number: CRD42021267069.

Mapping evidence on strengthened and sustained delivery early detection and management of Hypertension and Diabetes among PLWH: a scoping review protocol

The full text of this preprint has been withdrawn by the authors while they make corrections to the work. Therefore, the authors do not wish this work to be cited as a reference. Questions should be directed to the corresponding author.

Soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections in Malaysia : A scoping review protocol (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infection is one of the 13 notable Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) according to the CDC and WHO. In 2010, it is estimated that 1.73 billion people are infected with STH globally of which 70% of cases occur in Asia. To date, there is a dearth of published literature on the prevalence of STH infection throughout Malaysia. OBJECTIVE The objectives of this study are to review research activity on STH infection in Malaysia, to estimate the prevalence of STH infection among Malaysian, and to identify significant risk factors associated with the infection. METHODS We will conduct a scoping review based on the 6-stages structured framework of Arksey and O’Malley’s (2005) methodology. A comprehensive search strategy focusing on STH infection will be executed using electronic databases (Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science and EMBASE). A systematic approach to searching, screening, reviewing and data extraction will be applied based on Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses for Scoping Review (PRISMA-ScR). Mendeley software and Microsoft Excel programmes will be used to manage the references and to remove duplicates. Relevant data from selected articles will be extracted using a standardized data extraction form using the Google Form application. Results will be summarized descriptively in tabular form including types of interventions, study design, settings, tools used, and the outcomes of each study. RESULTS We would like to provide further evidence on the prevalence of STH in terms of parasite species that predominately cause the infection and the intensity of the infection. Finally, we will present the significant risk factors that contribute to STH infection and discuss prevention taken by considering the government or private sectors involvement towards curbing this issue. CONCLUSIONS We hope that the findings of this scoping review will provide information for policymakers and strengthen policy guidelines to eradicate STH infection, and for researchers to further study and investigate any STH-related issue in Malaysia.

Barriers to and facilitators of the implementation of pharmacist services in primary care clinics: a scoping review protocol

IntroductionInappropriate medication use is a leading cause of avoidable harm in health systems and is particularly severe in primary care settings. Evidence has shown that the integration of pharmacists into primary care clinics has favourable satisfaction and effectiveness in health outcomes. However, barriers to and facilitators of pharmacist services in these settings have not been comprehensively reviewed. Therefore, this scoping review aims to map and examine the literature available on the barriers to and facilitators of the implementation of pharmacist services in primary care clinics to guide future implementation research.Methods and analysisThis scoping review will be undertaken following the six-stage framework developed by Arksey and O’Malley and be guided by recommendations by Levac et al. Eight electronic databases (PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, CINAHL, PsycINFO, CNKI and Wanfang) will be searched. Reference lists and related citations, and grey literature from websites will be searched manually. Available information that has been reported in Chinese or English up to 31 August 2021 will be included. Studies will be selected and screened by two reviewers independently. Findings from the included studies will be extracted by two independent reviewers and supervised by a third reviewer. A content analysis of the findings will be performed using MAXQDA 2020.Ethics and disseminationEthical approval will not be required for this scoping review, as all data and information will be obtained from publicly available literature. The findings of this scoping review will be shared with healthcare managers in primary care institutions and health authorities as well as disseminated via publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

Do radiological findings around the Fitmore stem change over time?

Aims Although the short stem concept in hip arthroplasty procedure shows acceptable clinical performance, we sometimes get unexplainable radiological findings. The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate changes of radiological findings up to three years postoperatively, and to assess any potential contributing factors on such radiological change in a Japanese population. Methods This is a retrospective radiological study conducted in Japan. Radiological assessment was done in accordance with predetermined radiological review protocol. A total of 241 hips were included in the study and 118 hips (49.0%) revealed radiological change from immediately after surgery to one year postoperatively; these 118 hips were eligible for further analyses. Each investigator screened whether either radiolucent lines (RLLs), cortical hypertrophy (CH), or atrophy (AT) appeared or not on the one-year radiograph. Further, three-year radiographs of eligible cases were reviewed to determine changes such as, disappeared (D), improved (I), stable (S), and progression (P). Additionally, bone condensation (BC) was assessed on the three-year radiograph. Results CH was observed in 49 hips (21.1%), AT was observed in 63 hips (27.2%), and RLLs were observed in 34 hips (14.7%) at one year postoperatively. Among 34 hips with RLLs, 70.6% showed change of either D or I on the three-year radiograph. BC was observed in younger patients more frequently. Conclusion The Fitmore stem works well in a Japanese population with favourable radiological change on hips with RLLs. Longer-term follow-up is required to determine clinical relevance. Cite this article: Bone Jt Open 2022;3(1):20–28.