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SUPPORT structured summaries of systematic reviews

One reason for slow progress in achieving the maternal and child health Millennium Development Goals in low and middle-income countries is the difficulty policymakers and others have in accessing high quality information about potentially effective interventions to improve maternal and child health, and interventions to improve health systems.  The SUPPORT Collaboration is searching global databases for systematic reviews of maternal and child health interventions, and of ways to effectively organise, finance and govern the delivery of effective interventions. To make this information more accessible to policymakers and other stakeholders we are preparing structured summaries of relevant reviews.   

We have taken the following steps to ensure the relevance, quality and usefulness of SUPPORT Summaries:

• We conduct extensive searches for systematic reviews that examine the effects of interventions on maternal and child health, and health systems. 
• Once an eligible review is identified, we assess its quality using a modified version of a previously validated checklist.
• We judge the quality of evidence for the main comparisons in each included review using the internationally recognised GRADE system.
• Based on our assessment of the quality of the review and the quality of evidence for the main comparisons, we prepare structured summaries of the main findings of each review.

Each summary begins with the key messages derived from the findings of the review and our assessment, and includes

• Key background information needed to understand the findings
• A summary of what the review authors searched for and found
• A detailed summary of the main findings of the review, including our assessment of the quality of evidence for those findings
• Our assessment of the relevance of the review to low and middle-income countries, including
• the applicability of the evidence to low and middle-income countries,
• potential impacts on equity,
• economic considerations, and
• the need for monitoring and evaluation.
• References for additional information

For more information related to SUPPORT Summaries or to access the summaries click on the links below.

• How SUPPORT Summaries are prepared
• Judgements about the quality of evidence
• Conflicts of interest
• Glossary of terms
• Database of SUPPORT Summaries
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• Provide feedback on SUPPORT Summaries