Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Mar:119:126-135.
doi: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2019.10.014. Epub 2019 Nov 9.

GRADE guidelines 26: informative statements to communicate the findings of systematic reviews of interventions

Affiliations
Free article

GRADE guidelines 26: informative statements to communicate the findings of systematic reviews of interventions

Nancy Santesso et al. J Clin Epidemiol. 2020 Mar.
Free article

Abstract

Objectives: Clear communication of systematic review findings will help readers and decision makers. We built on previous work to develop an approach that improves the clarity of statements to convey findings and that draws on Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE).

Study design and setting: We conducted workshops including 80 attendants and a survey of 110 producers and users of systematic reviews. We calculated acceptability of statements and revised the wording of those that were unacceptable to ≥40% of participants.

Results: Most participants agreed statements should be based on size of effect and certainty of evidence. Statements for low, moderate and high certainty evidence were acceptable to >60%. Key guidance, for example, includes statements for high, moderate and low certainty for a large effect on intervention x as: x results in a large reduction…; x likely results in a large reduction…; x may result in a large reduction…, respectively.

Conclusions: Producers and users of systematic reviews found statements to communicate findings combining size and certainty of an effect acceptable. This article provides GRADE guidance and a wording template to formulate statements in systematic reviews and other decision tools.

Keywords: Evidence-based Medicine; Health communication; Language; Persuasive communication; Review literature as topic; Surveys and Questionnaires.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

Cited by

LinkOut - more resources