Quantitative Systematic Reviews

Abstract

Systematic reviews are secondary research reviews that are based on certain principles and conducted according to a welldesigned methodology. The purpose of this article is to describe the specific methodological steps which should be followed
by a research team in order to perform a systematic review and to enhance the rigour of the whole process. The steps involved
in generating systematic reviews include developing and refining the researchquestions, formulating the research protocol by
defining eligibility criteria and identifying search terms, screening abstracts according to inclusion/exclusion criteria,retrieving articles for evaluation, assessing their methodological quality, and synthesizing the results with or without performing meta-analysis (which is a specific statistical method of analysis). As systematic review allows for the combination of diverse
methodologies (including both quantitative and qualitative research), it is the method of choice for evidence based practice
initiatives, for exploring the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions for a specific clinical problem, and also for portraying
the complexity inherent in all health care problems of primary concern in nursing.