Barbara Nussbaumer-Streit

• Dr. scient. med.
• Co-Director Cochrane Austria at University for Continuing Education Krems

Zusammenfassung An der akuten Atemwegsinfektion Influenza erkranken jährlich über eine Milliarde Menschen weltweit. Die Erkrankung wird von Mensch zu Mensch über die Luft, kontaminierte Hände oder Gegenstände übertragen. Zur Behandlung von Patient*innen sowie zur Prophylaxe exponierter Personen stehen antivirale und immunmodulatorische Medikamente...

Background. Data extraction is a critical but error-prone and labor-intensive task in evidence synthesis. Unlike other artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, large language models (LLMs) do not require labeled training data for data extraction. Objective. To compare an AI-assisted to a traditional y data extraction process. Design. Study within...

Background Peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs) have a 29% complication rate. This systematic review evaluated 25 interventions to prevent PICC-associated infectious and noninfectious complications in participants of all ages. Methods We searched electronic databases (MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Library, World Health Organization Global I...

Background Systematic reviews (SRs) are time-consuming and labor-intensive to perform. With the growing number of scientific publications, the SR development process becomes even more laborious. This is problematic because timely SR evidence is essential for decision-making in evidence-based healthcare and policymaking. Numerous methods and tools t...

Rapid reviews have gained popularity as a pragmatic approach to synthesise evidence in a timely manner to inform decision-making in healthcare. This article provides an overview of the key concepts and methodological considerations in conducting rapid reviews, drawing from a series of recently published guidance papers by the Cochrane Rapid Reviews...

Background Systematic reviews (SRs) are time-consuming and labor-intensive to perform. With the growing number of scientific publications, the SR development process becomes even more laborious. This is problematic because timely SR evidence is essential for decision-making in evidence-based healthcare and policymaking. Numerous methods and tools t...

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund Nicht-übertragbare Krankheiten sind weltweit für die meisten Todesfälle verantwortlich. Ungesunde Ernährung wird dabei als wichtiger Risikofaktor angesehen. Unter anderem steht die Qualität der Kohlenhydrate in der Ernährung in Zusammenhang mit einem erhöhten Risiko nicht-übertragbarer Krankheiten. Der Anteil an Ballasts...

Background Although many people infected with SARS‐CoV‐2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) experience no or mild symptoms, some individuals can develop severe illness and may die, particularly older people and those with underlying medical problems. Providing evidence‐based interventions to prevent SARS‐CoV‐2 infection has become mo...

Background Peripheral intravenous catheters (PIVCs) contribute substantially to the global burden of infections. This systematic review assessed 24 infection prevention and control (IPC) interventions to prevent PIVC-associated infections and other complications. Methods We searched Ovid MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Library, WHO Global Index Medicus,...

This paper, part of the Cochrane Rapid Review Methods Group series, offers guidance on determining when to conduct a rapid review (RR) instead of a full systematic review (SR). While both review types aim to comprehensively synthesise evidence, RRs, conducted within a shorter time frame of typically 6 months or less, involve streamlined methods to...

Zusammenfassung Die Weltgesundheitsorganisation (WHO) veröffentlichte im September 2022 die Leitlinie „Guidelines on mental health at work“. Die WHO erarbeitete die Leitlinie gemäß WHO-Standards. Um den Transfer in den deutschsprachigen Raum zu erleichtern, wurde die Zusammenfassung dieser Leitlinie vom Team des WHO Collaborating Centres für Eviden...

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund Frühgeborene (Gestationsalter<37 Wochen) und Neugeborene mit niedrigem Geburtsgewicht (< 2,5 kg) benötigen komplexe Pflege, um ihr Überleben zu sichern und ihre körperliche und neurologische Entwicklung zu fördern. Ein erhöhtes Risiko für Entwicklungsstörungen, Infektionen, Ernährungsprobleme und Schwierigkeiten bei der...

Data extraction is a crucial, yet labor‐intensive and error‐prone part of evidence synthesis. To date, efforts to harness machine learning for enhancing efficiency of the data extraction process have fallen short of achieving sufficient accuracy and usability. With the release of large language models (LLMs), new possibilities have emerged to incre...

This paper is part of a series of methodological guidance from the Cochrane Rapid Reviews Methods Group. Rapid reviews (RRs) use modified systematic review methods to accelerate the review process while maintaining systematic, transparent and reproducible methods. This paper guides how to use supportive software for RRs. We strongly encourage the u...

This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (intervention). The objectives are as follows: To assess the benefits and harms of decongestants and antihistamines in the treatment of AOM in children. Specifically, we want to assess the impact of decongestants and antihistamines on the presence of otalgia, the persistence of AOM, the need for or change...

Data extraction is a crucial, yet labor-intensive and error-prone part of evidence synthesis. To date, efforts to harness machine learning for enhancing efficiency of the data extraction process have fallen short of achieving sufficient accuracy and usability. With the advent of Large Language Models (LLMs), new possibilities have emerged to increa...

The Cochrane Rapid Review Methods Group (RRMG) first released interim guidance in March 2020 to support authors in conducting rapid reviews (RRs). The objective of this mixed-methods study was to assess the adherence and investigate authors' understanding of the RRMG guidance. We identified all documents citing the Interim Cochrane RRMG guidance up...

This paper is part of a series of methodological guidance from the Cochrane Rapid Reviews Methods Group. Rapid reviews (RRs) use modified systematic review methods to accelerate the review process while maintaining systematic, transparent and reproducible methods. This paper addresses considerations for rating the certainty of evidence (COE) in RRs...

This paper is part of a series of methodological guidance from the Cochrane Rapid Reviews Methods Group (RRMG). Rapid reviews (RRs) use modified systematic review (SR) methods to accelerate the review process while maintaining systematic, transparent and reproducible methods to ensure integrity. This paper addresses considerations around the accele...

Background Rapid reviews (RRs) have been used to provide timely evidence for policymakers, health providers, and the public in several healthcare scenarios, most recently during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Despite the essential role of diagnosis in clinical management, data about how to perform RRs of diagnostic tests are scarce. We aime...

Background Systematic reviews (SRs) are invaluable evidence syntheses, widely used in biomedicine and other scientific areas. Tremendous resources are being spent on the production and updating of SRs. There is a continuous need to automatize the process and use the workforce and resources to make it faster and more efficient. Methods Information...

Background: Most HBV-associated deaths among adults are secondary to infections acquired at birth or in the first five years of life. Aim: To extend the guideline for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of the hepatitis B virus to include antiviral prophylaxis. Methods: The guideline was developed by the World Health Organization (W...

Background Health policy-makers must often make decisions in compressed time frames and with limited resources. Hence, rapid reviews have become a pragmatic alternative to comprehensive systematic reviews. However, it is important that rapid review methods remain rigorous to support good policy development and decisions. There is currently little e...

Evidence-based practice (EBP) means integrating the best available scientific evidence with clinical experience and patient values. Although perceived as important by many psychotherapists, there still seems to be reluctance to use empirically supported therapies in clinical practice. We aimed to assess the attitudes of psychotherapists in Austria...

Background: Although many people infected with SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2) experience no or mild symptoms, some individuals can develop severe illness and may die, particularly older people and those with underlying medical problems. Providing evidence-based interventions to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection has become...

Objective Assessing changes in coverage, recall, review conclusions and references not found when searching fewer databases. Study design and setting In 60 randomly selected Cochrane reviews, we checked included study publications' coverage (indexation) and recall (findability) using different search approaches with MEDLINE, Embase, and CENTRAL an...

Background: Utilization of crowdsourcing within evidence synthesis has increased over the last decade. Crowdsourcing platform Cochrane Crowd has engaged a global community of 22,000 people from 170 countries. The COVID-19 pandemic presented an opportunity to engage the community and keep up with the exponential output of COVID-19 research. Aims:...

Importance A systematic assessment of existing research should justify the conduct and inform the design of new clinical research but is often lacking. There is little research on the barriers to and factors facilitating systematic evidence assessments. Objective To examine the practices and attitudes of Swiss stakeholders and international funder...

This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (intervention). The objectives are as follows: To assess the benefits and harms of interventions in non‐healthcare‐related workplaces to reduce the risk of SARS‐CoV‐2 infection relative to other interventions or no intervention.

Objective To summarize the evidence on the effectiveness of soil remediation to prevent or reduce lead exposure. Methods We systematically searched MEDLINE, the Agricultural & Environmental Science Database, Web of Science, and Scopus from 1980 to February 15, 2021. We also performed reference list checking, hand-searched websites, and contacted e...

Cochrane has used crowdsourcing effectively to identify health evidence since 2014. To date, over 175,000 trialshave been identified for Cochrane’s Central Register of Controlled Trials via Cochrane Crowd (https://crowd.cochrane.org), Cochrane’s citizen science platform, engaging a Crowd of over 20,000 people from 166 countries. The COVID-19 pandem...

Objective We aimed to map the resource use during systematic review (SR) production and reasons why steps of the SR production are resource intensive to discover where the largest gain in improving efficiency might be possible. Study Design and Setting We conducted a scoping review. An information specialist searched multiple databases (e.g., Ovid...

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund Die frühe Kindheit ist eine Zeit in der sich Verhaltensweisen formen und Familien für Änderungen des Lebensstils offen sind. Ziel Diese Leitlinie gibt Empfehlungen wie viele Stunden Kleinkinder unter 5 Jahren innerhalb von 24 Stunden körperlich aktiv sein oder schlafen sollen, um ihre Gesundheit und ihr Wohlbefinden zu f...

Background: Varicoceles are associated with male subfertility; however, the mechanisms by which varicoceles affect fertility have yet to be satisfactorily explained. Several treatment options exist, including surgical or radiological treatment, however the safest and most efficient treatment remains unclear. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the effectivene...

Wir alle treffen ständig Entscheidungen, die mit unserer Gesundheit zu tun haben. Cochrane Österreich hilft dabei, verlässliche Informationen für solche Entscheidungen in deutscher Sprache zu liefern.

Objective: To assess the impact of restricting systematic reviews of conventional or alternative medical treatments or diagnostic tests to English-language publications. Study design and setting: We systematically searched MEDLINE (Ovid), the Science Citation Index Expanded (Web of Science), and Current Contents Connect (Web of Science) up to Ap...

Background: Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a seasonal pattern of recurrent depressive episodes that is often treated with second-generation antidepressants (SGAs), light therapy, or psychotherapy. Objectives: To assess the efficacy and safety of second-generation antidepressants (SGAs) for the treatment of seasonal affective disorder (SAD)...

Zusammenfassung Ziel Im Zuge der COVID-19-Pandemie benötigen viele gesundheitsrelevante Fragestellungen rasche Antworten. Im Kompetenznetz Public Health zu COVID-19, das im März 2020 von Vertreter:innen mehrerer wissenschaftlicher Fachgesellschaften gegründet wurde, werden vielfach Rapid Reviews erstellt, um rasch evidenzbasierte, für politische En...

Background: Lead exposure is a serious health hazard, especially for children. It is associated with physical, cognitive and neurobehavioural impairment in children. There are many potential sources of lead in the environment, therefore trials have tested many household interventions to prevent or reduce lead exposure. This is an update of a previ...

Background: Rapid reviews were first mentioned in the literature in 1997, when Best et al. described the rapid health technology assessment program in the south and west regions of England but did not provide a formal definition. More recently, the only consensus around a rapid review definition is that a formal definition does not exist. The prima...

Objective: To develop methods guidance to support the conduct of rapid reviews (RRs) produced within Cochrane and beyond, in response to requests for timely evidence syntheses for decision-making purposes including urgent health issues of high priority. Study Design: Interim recommendations were informed by a scoping review of the underlying eviden...

Background: Rapid reviews (RRs) are useful products to healthcare policy-makers and other stakeholders, who require timely evidence. Therefore, it is important to assess how well RRs convey useful information in a format that is easy to understand so that decision-makers can make best use of evidence to inform policy and practice. Methods: We as...

Background: Despite considerable progress in the fight against tuberculosis, it is still the most deadly bacterial infectious disease worldwide. Every year, up to 10 million people worldwide still die of tuberculosis. The World Health Assembly has set itself the goal of reducing the number of tuberculosis deaths by 90% and the number of new infect...

Background: This systematic review compares the efficacy and safety of surgical and non-surgical interventions for full- thickness rotator cuff tears. Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted in five databases. Randomized (RCTs) and non-randomized controlled trials of interventions (non-RCTs) for the surgical or non-surgical treatme...

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a rapidly emerging disease classified as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). To support the WHO with their recommendations on quarantine, we conducted a rapid review on the effectiveness of quarantine during severe coronavirus outbreaks. Objectives: To assess the effects of quaran...

Objective : Assessing the agreement of treatment effect estimates from meta-analyses based on abbreviated or comprehensive literature searches. Study Design and Setting : Meta-epidemiological study. We abbreviated 47 comprehensive Cochrane review searches and searched MEDLINE/Embase/CENTRAL alone, in combination, with/without checking references (...

Zusammenfassung Ziel Ziel dieses Artikels ist es, eine detaillierte Anleitung zu geben, wie Gerechtigkeit im Gesundheitswesen bei der Erstellung von Empfehlungen nach GRADE (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation) einbezogen werden kann. Studiendesign und Setting Wir haben diese Anleitung basierend auf dem GRADE-Ansatz...

The aim of this systematic review was to assess the performance of anthropometric tools to determine obesity in the general population (CRD42018086888). Our review included 32 studies. To detect obesity with body mass index (BMI), the meta-analyses rendered a sensitivity of 51.4% (95% CI 38.5–64.2%) and a specificity of 95.4% (95% CI 90.7–97.8%) in...

Background: Decision-makers increasingly request rapid answers to clinical or public health questions. To save time, personnel, and financial resources, rapid reviews streamline the methodological steps of the systematic review process. We aimed to explore the validity of a rapid review approach that combines a substantially abbreviated literature...

Melatonin and agomelatine for preventing seasonal affective disorder: a Cochrane Review - Volume 26 Issue 4 - Barbara Nussbaumer-Streit, Amy Greenblatt, Angela Kaminski-Hartenthaler, Megan G. Van Noord, Catherine A. Forneris, Laura C. Morgan, Bradley N. Gaynes, Jörg Wipplinger, Linda J. Lux, Dietmar Winkler, Gerald Gartlehner

Zusammenfassung Ziel Ziel dieses Artikels ist es, einen konzeptionellen Rahmen für die Berücksichtigung der Gerechtigkeit im Gesundheitswesen bei der Entwicklung von GRADE-Leitlinien zu beschreiben. Studiendesign und Setting Konsensorientierte Anleitung wurde von den Mitgliedern der GRADE-Arbeitsgruppe und anderen Methodikerinnen und Methodikern...

Objectives To identify studies that have assessed methodological shortcuts for undertaking rapid reviews (RR) and mapping these to review conduct stages and Methodological Expectations of Cochrane Intervention Reviews (MECIR) guidance. Study Design and Setting We conducted a systematic scoping review. We searched multiple databases (e.g., MEDLINE,...

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund Die Coronavirus-Krankheit COVID-19 ist eine neue, sich rasch ausbreitende zoonotische Infektionskrankheit, die der Weltgesundheitsorganisation (WHO) erstmals am 31. Dezember 2019 gemeldet wurde. Da zurzeit keine wirksamen Medikamente oder Impfstoffe zur Behandlung oder Prävention von COVID-19 zur Verfügung stehen, rücken...

Background: Rapid reviews (RRs) have emerged as an efficient alternative to time-consuming systematic reviews-they can help meet the demand for accelerated evidence synthesis to inform decision-making in healthcare. The synthesis of diagnostic evidence has important methodological challenges. Here, we performed an international survey to identify...

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a rapidly emerging disease that has been classified a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). To support WHO with their recommendations on quarantine, we conducted a rapid review on the effectiveness of quarantine during severe coronavirus outbreaks. Objectives: We conducted a rapid rev...

BACKGROUND Rapid reviews (RRs) have emerged as an efficient alternative to time-consuming systematic reviews—they can help meet the demand for accelerated evidence synthesis to inform decision-making in healthcare. The synthesis of diagnostic evidence has important methodological challenges. Here, we performed an international survey to identify th...

Background Decision-makers increasingly request rapid answers to clinical or public health questions. To save time, personnel, and financial resources, rapid reviews streamline the methodological steps of the systematic review process. Methods Using three cases studies, we evaluated a rapid review approach that consisted of a substantially abbrevia...

Background Decision-makers increasingly request rapid answers to clinical or public health questions. To save time, personnel, and financial resources, rapid reviews streamline the methodological steps of the systematic review process. We aimed to explore the validity of a rapid review approach that combines a substantially abbreviated literature s...

Objective: To provide guidance on how systematic review authors, guideline developers, and health technology assessment practitioners should approach the use of the risk of bias in nonrandomized studies of interventions (ROBINS-I) tool as a part of GRADE's certainty rating process. Study design and setting: The study design and setting comprised...

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund Stillen ist eine wichtige Grundlage für die Gesundheit und Entwicklung eines Kindes, in manchen Teilen der Welt auch für das Überleben eines Kindes. Trotz umfangreicher Belege dafür, dass Nicht-Stillen global mit erhöhter Mortalität und langfristigen gesundheitsschädlichen Auswirkungen assoziiert ist, werden weniger als...

Objective: We aimed to assess whether limiting the inclusion criteria solely to English-language publications affected the overall conclusions of evidence syntheses. Study design and setting: Our analyses used a dataset of a previous methods study that included 59 randomly selected Cochrane intervention reviews with no language restrictions. Fir...

Objective: To provide guidance for guideline developers on how to consider health equity at key stages of the guideline development process. Study design and setting: Literature review followed by group discussions and consensus building. Results: The key stages at which guideline developers could consider equity include setting priorities, gu...

Objectives: This article introduces the rationale and methods for explicitly considering health equity in the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) methodology for development of clinical, public health, and health system guidelines. This article is a German translation of the original version published in Engli...

Background: Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a seasonal pattern of recurrent major depressive episodes that most commonly starts in autumn or winter and remits in spring. The prevalence of SAD depends on latitude and ranges from 1.5% to 9%. The predictable seasonal aspect of SAD provides a promising opportunity for prevention in people who hav...

Die österreichische Vorsorgeuntersuchung (VU) wurde 1974 als Kassenleistung eingeführt und im Jahr 2005 zum letzten Mal neu gestaltet. Ziel dieser Arbeit war daher, die wissenschaftlichen Grundlagen der VU unter Verwendung des GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation) Ansatzes zu aktualisieren. Die wissenschaftliche...

Background: Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a seasonal pattern of recurrent major depressive episodes that most commonly occurs during autumn or winter and remits in spring. The prevalence of SAD ranges from 1.5% to 9%, depending on latitude. The predictable seasonal aspect of SAD provides a promising opportunity for prevention. This is one o...

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund Risikokommunikation ist ein wesentlicher Bestandteil, um auf Notfälle und Katastrophen, die die Gesundheit der Bevölkerung gefährden, angemessen reagieren zu können. Ziel Die Weltgesundheitsorganisation (WHO) entwickelte diese Leitlinie, um WHO-Mitgliedsstaaten, sowie Stakeholdern aus dem Bereich Notfallschutz und -bekäm...

Background Assessment of diagnostic tests, broadly defined as any element that aids in the collection of additional information for further clarification of a patient’s health status, has increasingly become a critical issue in health policy and decision-making. Diagnostic evidence, including the accuracy of a medical test for a target condition, i...

Background: Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a seasonal pattern of recurrent major depressive episodes that most commonly occurs during autumn or winter and remits in spring. The prevalence of SAD ranges from 1.5% to 9%, depending on latitude. The predictable seasonal aspect of SAD provides a promising opportunity for prevention. This review -...

Background: Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a seasonal pattern of recurrent major depressive episodes that most commonly occurs during autumn or winter and remits in spring. The prevalence of SAD ranges from 1.5% to 9%, depending on latitude. The predictable seasonal aspect of SAD provides a promising opportunity for prevention. This review -...

Background Periodontal diseases are responsible for a vast burden of disease globally and are associated with other severe illnesses such as cardiovascular diseases or diabetes. Tests for early diagnosis of periodontal diseases and effective treatments are available. The effectiveness of screening for periodontal diseases to detect periodontal dise...

Background Health promotion programs can only lead to improvements in health outcomes if they are effectively implemented. However, most studies assessing implementation success focus on only one condition, although more conditions influence this process. Therefore, evidence is scarce on what conditions play a role in successful implementation and...

Background Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a seasonally recurrent type of major depression that has detrimental effects on patients’ lives during winter. Little is known about how it affects patients during summer and about patients’ and physicians’ perspectives on preventive SAD treatment. The aim of our study was to explore how SAD patients...

Objectives: The aim of article was to assess the risk for random errors in outcomes graded as high certainty of evidence (CoE). Study design and setting: We randomly selected 100 Cochrane reviews with dichotomous outcomes rated as high CoE using Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation. To detect increased risks for ran...

We aimed to assess the impact of timing of surgery in elderly patients with acute hip fracture on morbidity and mortality. We systematically searched MEDLINE, the Cochrane Library, Embase, PubMed, and trial registries from 01/1997 to 05/2017, as well as reference lists of relevant reviews, archives of orthopaedic conferences, and contacted experts....

Objective: To assess the effects of abbreviated literature searches on evidence syntheses conclusions. Study design and setting: We randomly selected 60 Cochrane reviews of clinical interventions and repeated literature searches using 14 abbreviated approaches (combinations of MEDLINE, Embase, CENTRAL with and without searches of reference lists...

In healthcare, the processes, criteria, and evidence that decision makers use to reach their judgments often remain unclear. Decision makers sometimes neglect important criteria, give undue weight to criteria, or do not use the best available evidence to inform their judgments. Thus, the GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and...

Background: Hip fractures are a major public health problem in elderly populations and are accompanied by high-mortality rates. Whether timing of surgery has an impact on morbidity and mortality has been discussed controversially, numerous studies suggest that the delay of surgery can significantly increase the risk of morbidity and mortality; oth...

Background Decisionmakers and guideline developers demand rapid syntheses of the evidence when time sensitive evidence-informed decisions are required. A potential trade-off of such rapid reviews is that their results can have less reliability than results of systematic reviews that can lead to an increased risk of making incorrect decisions or rec...