Project Description

Author: Khan et al.

Summary:

Despite being a completely preventable disease, tetanus cases continue to occur worldwide. Tetanus is still a major health problem in developing countries, and it is associated with a high morbidity and mortality rate in both neonates and adults. However, studies that investigated factors associated with deaths in adult tetanus were not systematically reviewed. Considering the gap of the research, we aim to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis to find out the prognostic factors associated with the mortality of adult tetanus. Observational studies will be included to assess the factors associated with mortality of adult tetanus patients. Cross-sectional studies, case-control studies, cohort studies and case-cohort studies will be included. A comprehensive search strategy will be developed for PubMed/MEDLINE. The search strategy aims to find only published studies. A three-step search strategy will be followed:

1. An initial limited search of PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE/Embase, Google Scholar, SciELO and BanglaJOL will be undertaken followed by analysis of the text words contained in the title and abstract, and of the index terms used to describe each article. MeSH term will also be selected from this search.

2. A second search using all identified keywords and index terms will then be undertaken across all included databases. The search terms will be adapted in combination with database-specific filters where these are available. Table 1 demonstrates the key search terms or basic categories of search.

3. Thirdly, the reference list of all identified reports and articles will be searched for additional studies.

Only the literatures that are published in English language will be searched. Studies published beginning with the date of inception of each of the databases will be considered for inclusion in this review. Furthermore, studies published before December 2020 will be sought. In cases where details were missing on study design, population, intervention, or outcomes, the authors of included studies will be contacted by email. After the first contact attempt, if no response will be received, the study authors will be contacted 2 more times approximately 3 to 4 weeks apart. The searches will be rerun just before the final analyses and further studies retrieved for inclusion.

Status: Ongoing

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