{"id":380,"date":"2019-12-06T15:38:29","date_gmt":"2019-12-06T14:38:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.exeter.ac.uk\/apex\/?p=380"},"modified":"2025-07-03T08:18:51","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T08:18:51","slug":"making-a-meal-of-it-how-i-sank-my-teeth-into-a-cochrane-systematic-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/apex\/2019\/12\/06\/making-a-meal-of-it-how-i-sank-my-teeth-into-a-cochrane-systematic-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Making a meal of it: How I sank my teeth into a Cochrane systematic review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr Jo Butterworth, GP and NIHR Doctoral Research Fellow.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u201cHow are you 300 ahead of me?!\u201d said my colleague, arriving at her desk to start a new day\u2019s work. \u201cSorry?\u201d I said, finishing off a mouthful of breakfast bar. I already knew what she meant. We\u2019d been \u2018competing\u2019 like this for a few days now, egging each other on to maintain our momentum and get through the work on schedule. \u201cTitles and abstracts! You\u2019ve screened 300 overnight!\u201d My mind went back to yesterday evening, sitting in the kitchen watching the potato wedges turn crispy in the oven whilst I flicked through \u201cjust a few more\u201d articles on my mobile screening app. I guess that\u2019s the way with screening isn\u2019t it? At the start it\u2019s like being confronted with a gigantic raw potato but once you\u2019ve peeled the skin, gotten rid of a few knobbly bits, you just keep chipping away\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 if we\u2019d had all of the ingredients to make a shepherd\u2019s pie then we would\u2019ve made a shepherd\u2019s pie, so next time we\u2019re in the kitchen we might think about peeling a few more potatoes.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the case of our review of interventions, the evidence was fairly small fry and study authors had chosen different outcomes resulting in a lack of data which could be combined in our analysis. We reached the nevertheless important conclusion that further research was warranted and we made suggestions as to how research teams might go about this.<\/p>\n

I never set out to lead on a Cochrane review; my funders thought it might be more than I could chew. However, when both I and the team from Manchester applied to update an existing review, Cochrane served up a sharing platter and suggested that we start with a clean slate. Now, when you\u2019re posing your question and designing your search strategy, you\u2019re just at the tip of the iceberg, with little real idea about where this might lead in terms of the workload ahead.\u00a0 Well, I can tell you now that there is nothing bite-sized about a Cochrane review.<\/p>\n

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Serving up and submitting a Cochrane review is what I imagine being a contestant on a well-known television cooking show might be like. You know you won\u2019t get through to the next round if it doesn\u2019t look, smell and taste just as the judges expect. However, there is plenty of guidance available to authors to ensure that their writing is up to standard.<\/p>\n

There is also a lot of suggested text, which must not be left out, even if it does not seem applicable. For example, you’re expected to say something like, \u201cif we\u2019d had all of the ingredients to make a shepherd\u2019s pie then we would\u2019ve made a shepherd\u2019s pie, so next time we\u2019re in the kitchen we might think about peeling a few more potatoes\u201d.<\/p>\n

Carrying out a Cochrane review is, all-in-all, a highly valuable learning experience and it is the gold standard approach to a systematic review. I am grateful that I have been through the process and for the more sophisticated research palate that I have undoubtedly acquired along the way.<\/p>\n

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Reference:<\/p>\n

Butterworth_JE, Hays_R, McDonagh_STJ, Richards_SH, Bower_P, Campbell_J. Interventions for involving older patients with multi-morbidity in decision-making during primary care consultations. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews <\/em>2019, Issue 10. Art. No.: CD013124. DOI: 10.1002\/14651858.CD013124.pub2 .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr Jo Butterworth, GP and NIHR Doctoral Research Fellow.         \u201cHow are you 300 ahead of me?!\u201d said my colleague, arriving at her desk to start a new day\u2019s work. \u201cSorry?\u201d I said, finishing off a mouthful of breakfast bar. I already knew what she meant. We\u2019d been \u2018competing\u2019 like this for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":985,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMaking a meal of it: How I sank my teeth into a Cochrane systematic review - Exeter Collaboration for Academic Primary Care (APEx) Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/apex\/2019\/12\/06\/making-a-meal-of-it-how-i-sank-my-teeth-into-a-cochrane-systematic-review\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Making a meal of it: How I sank my teeth into a Cochrane systematic review - Exeter Collaboration for Academic Primary Care (APEx) Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dr Jo Butterworth, GP and NIHR Doctoral Research Fellow.         \u201cHow are you 300 ahead of me?!\u201d said my colleague, arriving at her desk to start a new day\u2019s work. \u201cSorry?\u201d I said, finishing off a mouthful of breakfast bar. 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