Series: AHRQ Series on Complex Intervention Systematic Reviews
AHRQ series on complex intervention systematic reviews—paper 7: PRISMA-CI elaboration and explanation

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2017.06.017Get rights and content
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Abstract

Background

Complex interventions are widely used in health care, public health, education, criminology, social work, business, and welfare. They have increasingly become the subject of systematic reviews and are challenging to effectively report. The Complex Interventions Methods Workgroup developed an extension to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses for Complex Interventions (PRISMA-CI).

Rationale

Following the EQUATOR Network guidance for Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis extensions, this Explanation and Elaboration (EE) document accompanies the PRISMA-CI checklist to promote consistency in reporting of systematic reviews of complex interventions.

Discussions

The EE document explains the meaning and rationale for each unique PRISMA-CI checklist item and provides examples to assist systematic review authors in operationalizing PRISMA-CI guidance. The Complex Interventions Workgroup developed PRISMA-CI as an important start toward increased consistency in reporting of systematic reviews of complex interventions. Because the field is rapidly expanding, the Complex Interventions Methods Workgroup plans to re-evaluate periodically for the need to add increasing specificity and examples as the field matures.

Keywords

Complex interventions
Publishing standards
Research report standards
Health care interventions
Evidence-based medicine
Systematic review
Research design
Review literature as topic
Guidance as topic

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Funding: This work was funded by the following contracts HHSA290201200004C, HHSA290201200016I, and HHSA290201500011I from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Conflicts of interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper. The authors of this report are responsible for its content. Statements in the report should not be construed as endorsement by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.