Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Code:

PD_SP008

Acronym:

RSMA

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Epidemiology

Instance: 2023/2024 - 1S

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Public Health and Forensic Sciences, and Medical Education Department
Course/CS Responsible:	Doctoral Programme in Public Health

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
PDSP	15	Current Studies Plan	1	-	4	18	108

Teaching language

English
Obs.: A língua de trabalho será o português se todos os estudantes inscritos assim o solicitarem.

Objectives

Systematic reviews are becoming more frequent in the scientific literature, which contributes to an increase in the transparency and quality of literature reviews.

This curricular unit aims to introduce the most relevant methodological aspects related to systematic reviews of the literature, as well as the scientific basis for quantitative synthesis through meta-analysis.

Learning outcomes and competences

At the end of the course the participants should be able to perform a critical appraisal of systematic reviews, and to conduct research using these methodologies, namely: identification of potentially eligible studies in different sources and efficient management of the searches; assessment of the quality of the studies; data extraction from the original reports; different strategies for data synthesis.

Working method

Presencial

Program

Scope, potential and limitations of the techniques for systematic review and meta-analysis

General structure of a systematic review

Formatting of research questions and development of protocols for systematic reviews

Search in electronic databases and other strategies for identification of relevant literature

Bias in systematic review: typology and detection

Management of searches conducted using different sources

Data extraction and synthesis (meta-analysis and other methods)

Evaluation of the quality of studies included in the systematic review

Practical exercises

Mandatory literature

Lunet N; Lunet N. The use of systematic review and meta-analysis in modern epidemiology. In: Lunet N, editor. Epidemiology: current perspectives on research and practice, 2012. ISBN: 978-953-51-0382-0
Higgins J, Thomas J, Chandler J, Cumpston M, Li T, Page M, Welch (editors); Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions Version 6.4, 2023 (Available at: https://training.cochrane.org/handbook/current)

Comments from the literature

The main bibliography will be complemented with supplementary material.

Teaching methods and learning activities

The curricular unit includes lectures and practical sessions (practical exercises, discussion of practical work and exercises) and autonomous work. Practical exercises will be made available and tasks proposed, to be used out of the classroom context, which aim to complement the structured theoretical and practical sessions. It is expected to require an amount of work corresponding to 4 ECTS. Electronic databases freely available or available for the University of Porto students will be searched.

Software

Endnote
Endnote

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation without final exam

Assessment Components

Designation	Weight (%)
Teste	50,00
Trabalho escrito	50,00
Total:	100,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

Designation	Time (hours)
Estudo autónomo	90,00
Frequência das aulas	18,00
Total:	108,00

Eligibility for exams

Attendance to at least 75% of the class hours.

Calculation formula of final grade

The evaluation will consist in an individual continuous evaluation test (corresponding to 50% of the final grade) and a written group assignment (corresponding to 50% of the final grade).

 

These two components will be considered for the calculation of the final grade, regardless of the classification obtain in each of them, and cannot be subject of evaluation in the supplementary evaluation season.

 

For the components of continuous evaluation not attended by the student a classification of zero will be considered in the calculation of the final grade.

Classification improvement

Not possible in the same year. Requires the repetition of the two components of the continuous evaluation.