The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews – Issue 8of 2010

The Cochrane Library has now been published monthly formore than half a year and the benefits of shortening theinterval between acceptance and publication are apparent.Users of the up-to-date evidence in Cochrane reviews getaccess to this information within weeks of it being approvedby the relevant editorial team, and a good example arose afterthe recent election in the United Kingdom. The Cochranereview of self-monitoring of oral anticoagulation which firstappeared in Issue 4 of The Cochrane Library in April andwas featured as the Cochrane Journal Club in May (1), wascited in the new government’s proposals for the future of theNational Health Service in July (2).

In this article, we summarise some of the reviews thatappeared for the first time or were updated in the eighthissue of the year, which was published in August. It contains4300 full Cochrane reviews and protocols for a further 1900that are at earlier stages of development. There were 22 newCochrane reviews and 23 existing reviews were updated.The inclusion of new information in six of these updatedreviews was sufficient to produce changes to the previousconclusions.

All Cochrane reviews are available in full within TheCochrane Library (www.TheCochraneLibrary.com). Theyinclude details of how the review was done, along with resultsand summaries of the included studies, and the conclusionsof the Cochrane researchers. For most of the reviews, you arealso able to obtain their original protocol, as well as earlierversions of the review if it has been updated since it firstappeared in full.

The new and updated reviews cover a wide range of areasof health care and health policy. There are new reviews ofselective serotonin reuptake inhibitors for the treatment ofautism (3), strategies to expand health insurance coveragefor children (4), remote support or monitoring programmesin chronic heart failure (5), and the effects on drug use,health and expenditure of restrictions on the reimbursementof the costs of medicines (6). An updated review, which hasnow reached 88 included studies, examines the evidence onimmunotherapy for asthma (7).

Cochrane Evidence Pods have been prepared for allfive of these reviews. These podcasts are available free ofcharge at www.cochrane.org/podcasts. The Cochrane Jour-nal Club also continues to highlight specific Cochrane re-

views, providing a specially prepared introductory sum-mary for the review, slideshow, author profile, discussionpoints, and list of related articles. These are availableat www.CochraneJournalClub.com, and the August issuepresents the latest findings from the Cochrane review of in-fluenza vaccines for healthy adults (8). In July, the Jour-nal Club focused on a new Cochrane of administeringoxygen to people with a heart attack (9), and the featuredreview in June examined the use of lactoferrin for the pre-vention of sepsis and necrotizing enterocolitis in pretermbabies (10).

In the following section, the authors of some recently pub-lished Cochrane reviews describe their research and theirfindings.

References

1. Garcia-Alamino JM, Ward AM, Alonso-Coello P, Perera R,Bankhead C, Fitzmaurice D, Heneghan CJ. Self-monitoring andself-management of oral anticoagulation. Cochrane Database of

Systematic Reviews 2010, Issue 4. Art. No.: CD003839.2. Department of Health. Equity and excellence: Liberating the

NHS. July 2010.3. Williams K, Wheeler DM, Silove N, Hazell P. Selective

serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) for autism spectrumdisorders (ASD). Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews

2010, Issue 8. Art. No.: CD004677.4. Meng Q, Yuan B, Jia L, Wang J, Garner P. Outreach strategies

for expanding health insurance coverage in children. Cochrane

Database of Systematic Reviews 2010, Issue 8. Art. No.:CD008194.

5. Inglis SC, Clark RA, McAlister FA, Ball J, Lewinter C,Cullington D, Stewart S, Cleland JGF. Structured telephonesupport or telemonitoring programmes for patients with chronicheart failure. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2010,Issue 8. Art. No.: CD007228.

6. Green CJ, Maclure M, Fortin PM, Ramsay CR, Aaserud M,Bardal S. Pharmaceutical policies: effects of restrictions onreimbursement. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews

2010, Issue 8. Art. No.: CD008654.7. Abramson MJ, Puy RM, Weiner JM. Injection allergen

immunotherapy for asthma. Cochrane Database of Systematic

Reviews 2010, Issue 8. Art. No.: CD001186.

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8. Jefferson T, Di Pietrantonj C, Rivetti A, Bawazeer GA,Al-Ansary LA, Ferroni E. Vaccines for preventing influenza inhealthy adults. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2010,Issue 7. Art. No.: CD001269.

9. Cabello JB, Burls A, Emparanza JI, Bayliss S, Quinn T.Oxygen therapy for acute myocardial infarction. Cochrane

Database of Systematic Reviews 2010, Issue 6. Art. No.:CD007160.

10. Venkatesh MP, Abrams SA. Oral lactoferrin for the preventionof sepsis and necrotizing enterocolitis in preterm infants.Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2010, Issue 5. Art.No.: CD007137.

184 JEBM 3 (2010) 183–184 c© 2010 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd and Chinese Cochrane Center, West China Hospital of Sichuan University