ArticleCochrane evidence synthesis and methods2023
Should CINAHL be used as one of the main databases for evidence synthesis of health services intervention?
Article in Cochrane evidence synthesis and methods, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A systematic review of users experiences of using digital interventions within psychosis: a thematic synthesis of qualitative research.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2025Pooled it
- Budesonide and Surfactant Therapy Versus Surfactant Alone on Incidence of Lung Disease in Preterm Infants (BEST Lung): Study Protocol for a Systematic Review and Individual Participant Data Meta-Analysis With Nested Prospective Meta-Analysis.Acta paediatrica (Oslo, Norway : 1992) · 2026Article
- Should CINAHL be used as one of the main databases for evidence synthesis of health services intervention?Cochrane evidence synthesis and methods · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Introduction: CINAHL is not listed as one of the minimum databases for systematic review (SR) of interventions in the Methodological Expectations of the Cochrane Intervention Review. Objective: To determine additional studies uniquely identified from the CINAHL search in SR of health services interventions (HSI). Methods: We searched PubMed from inception to October 1, 2022 to identify SRs of HSI that determined clinical or humanistic outcomes of HSI and used CINAHL. Out of 5655 Systematic reviews identified, we randomly selected 374 SRs and extracted all primary studies included. We then explored the bibliographic databases in which the journals of those studies were indexed. The outcome of interest was the number of studies uniquely available in CINHAL. We also performed a subgroup analysis based on the type of HSI. We performed descriptive statistics to report the study outcomes using Excel (Microsoft 365). Results: A total of 7550 primary studies were identified from the 374 Systematic reviews that met the inclusion criteria. Of these studies, 7380 were journal publications that have been indexed in MEDLINE/PubMed (75.1%), Scopus (74.5%), Sciences Citation Index, SCI (54.7%), Embase (48.1%), and CINAHL (34.9%). Only 83 out of 7380 (1.1%) studies were published in journals that were uniquely indexed in CINAHL. The percentage of studies that were only available in other databases was 9.7% (Scopus), 4.3% (MEDLINE/PubMed), 1.6% (SCI), and 0.3% (Embase). The number of studies that were unique to CINAHL in specific types of HSI were: 24/1570 (1.5%) for community health services, 20/1520 (1.3%) for preventive health services, 45/3624 (1.2%) for patient care, 8/1173 (0.7%) for mental health services, and 18/2804 (0.6%) for rehabilitation. Conclusion: The gain of CINAHL to identify unique primary studies for SR of HSI appears minimal. The impact of missing studies uniquely available in CINAHL on SR summary or magnitude of effect estimates from meta-analysis requires further investigation.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.