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Applying GRADE-CERQual to qualitative evidence synthesis findings–paper 6: how to assess relevance of the data

Noyes, Jane; Booth, Andrew; Lewin, Simon; Carlsen, Benedicte; Glenton, Claire; Colvin, Christopher J.; Garside, Ruth; Bohren, Meghan A.; Rashidian, Arash; Wainwright, Megan; Tunςalp, Özge; Chandler, Jacqueline; Flottorp, Signe; Pantoja, Tomas; Tucker, Joseph D.; Munthe-Kaas, Heather

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Authors

Jane Noyes

Andrew Booth

Simon Lewin

Benedicte Carlsen

Claire Glenton

Christopher J. Colvin

Ruth Garside

Meghan A. Bohren

Arash Rashidian

Özge Tunςalp

Jacqueline Chandler

Signe Flottorp

Tomas Pantoja

Joseph D. Tucker

Heather Munthe-Kaas



Abstract

Background: The GRADE-CERQual (Confidence in Evidence from Reviews of Qualitative research) approach has been developed by the GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation) Working Group. The approach has been developed to support the use of findings from qualitative evidence syntheses in decision-making, including guideline development and policy formulation. CERQual includes four components for assessing how much confidence to place in findings from reviews of qualitative research (also referred to as qualitative evidence syntheses): (1) methodological limitations, (2) coherence, (3) adequacy of data and (4) relevance. This paper is part of a series providing guidance on how to apply CERQual and focuses on CERQual’s relevance component. Methods: We developed the relevance component by searching the literature for definitions, gathering feedback from relevant research communities and developing consensus through project group meetings. We tested the CERQual relevance component within several qualitative evidence syntheses before agreeing on the current definition and principles for application. Results: When applying CERQual, we define relevance as the extent to which the body of data from the primary studies supporting a review finding is applicable to the context (perspective or population, phenomenon of interest, setting) specified in the review question. In this paper, we describe the relevance component and its rationale and offer guidance on how to assess relevance in the context of a review finding. This guidance outlines the information required to assess relevance, the steps that need to be taken to assess relevance and examples of relevance assessments. Conclusions: This paper provides guidance for review authors and others on undertaking an assessment of relevance in the context of the CERQual approach. Assessing the relevance component requires consideration of potentially important contextual factors at an early stage in the review process. We expect the CERQual approach, and its individual components, to develop further as our experiences with the practical implementation of the approach increase.

Citation

Noyes, J., Booth, A., Lewin, S., Carlsen, B., Glenton, C., Colvin, C. J., …Munthe-Kaas, H. (2018). Applying GRADE-CERQual to qualitative evidence synthesis findings–paper 6: how to assess relevance of the data. Implementation Science, 13(S1), Article 4. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13012-017-0693-6

Journal Article Type Article
Online Publication Date Jan 25, 2018
Publication Date Jan 25, 2018
Deposit Date May 8, 2018
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Implementation Science
Publisher BioMed Central
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 13
Issue S1
Article Number 4
DOI https://doi.org/10.1186/s13012-017-0693-6

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http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.





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