The COSMIN database of systematic reviews of outcome measurement instruments

In this document we explain:

1. The scope and content of the COSMIN database2. How to search the COSMIN database3. How to save your records of interest and your search strategies

1. The scope and content of the COSMIN database

The COSMIN database is freely accessible, and contains systematic reviews of outcome measurement instruments. Such systematic reviews are important tools for the selection of outcome measurement instruments for research and clinical practice and for identifying gaps in knowledge on the quality measurement properties of outcome measurement instruments.

Register yourself freely to get access to more application such as saving your searches!

A systematic review is included in this database when it fulfills the following criteria:

1. The review should be a systematic review (i.e. a search in at least one electronic database was performed);

2. The aim of the review should be to identify all outcome measurement instruments of interest and to summarize the evidence on their measurement properties;

3. The construct of interest of the review should be (aspects of) health status, defined as (a) biological and physiological processes, OR (b) symptoms, OR (c) physical functioning, OR (d) social/psychological functioning, OR (e) general health perceptions, OR (f) health-related quality of life (based on the model of Wilson & Cleary, JAMA 1995);

4. The population of included studies should contain humans (patients or general population);

5. The instruments of interest should be outcome measurement instruments, defined as instruments which can be/are applied in longitudinal studies to monitor changes in health over time (the outcome measure is the dependent variable);

6. The review should evaluate and report on at least one or more measurement properties of the included instruments.

Each systematic review is indexed into the following headers: level of health, based on the levels described by Wilson and Cleary (1995), characteristics of the population (age and disease), and type of outcome measurement instrument (e.g. PROM). In addition, all authors of reviews, and all instruments described in the reviews are extracted*.

* With the help of MAPI Research Trust and Zuyd University of Applied Sciences (Heerlen, the Netherlands), we are regularly updating the COSMIN database.

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To find the reviews, we in PubMed and EMBASE. Search terms can be found in Appendix 1.

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2. How to search the database

Searching the COSMIN database can be done in several ways.

At the home page, you find pre-specified search categories that you can use to limit your search. By unfolding a category, you can limit your search. For example, you can unfold ‘Functional status’, and select ‘Cognitive/ mental functioning’ by clicking on the sub-category.

This example results in 24 reviews that are currently included in the database, of which 8 reviews also include instruments on physical functioning, 1 on role functioning, and 5 on social functioning.

Next, you may limit your search to ‘children (0-18)’, and now 10 reviews are left.

If you want to delete a chosen category, you can click on the cross to de-select it.

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Searching can also be done based on the authors’ name. In addition, we are currently working on indexing all reviews on instrument’s name. This will provide users with another search option to search the entire database.

Unfolding the author-category gives you names of authors ordered in number of reviews in which the person was co-author.

By clicking on ‘more’ all authors can be found, and names can also be ordered in alphabetical order

Searching using the search entry field

The database can also be searched using the search entry field at the home page. You can decide to search in all fields, by author, by instrument or by title.

If you start entering any keywords, suggestions will pop-up. For example, if you type ‘elderly’

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You can use parentheses, i.e. “10-s Test”, to get more precise results.

As the 10-s Test is the name of an instrument, you can also indicate that you are looking for a specific instrument, and then the quotes are not needed.

Multiple keywords can also be added, using ‘AND’, ‘OR’, or ‘NOT’. In this case, one suggestion pops up.

This review was also found when three categories were chosen. This search strategy resulted in 11 reviews.

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If you click on a review, you’ll find all information about the reference (e.g. authors, title, journal information, abstract) and the indexation (e.g. indexed levels of health, age categories, diseases and type of instruments).

More search options

More complex searches can be done using the ‘More search options’-button.

In the upper part of this page, search can be made using keywords.

Use ‘any’ to include any of these keywords (i.e. OR as used in PubMed)

Use ‘all’ to restrict to all keywords that are entered (i.e. AND as used in PubMed)

When these keywords are entered, press ‘enter’ to see the results.

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In the lower part of this page, searches can be made by selecting multiple categories. For example, you can select at ‘Symptom status’ both Cognitive/mental status and Physical status, and combine it with two selected disease categories.

This search strategy looks like this:

After pressing the ‘search’ button you get your results.

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Some additional search tips:

Select "match all" to require all fields. Select "match any" to find at least one field. Combine keywords and attributes to find specific items. Use quotation marks to search as a phrase. Use "OR" before a word or phrase to add Use "AND" or "+" before a word or phrases to make it required (Otherwise

results matching only some of your terms may be included) Use "NOT" or "-" before a word or phrase to exclude Use up and down arrows to choose an item from the autocomplete Truncation (using *) is supported, and word-stemming is done

automatically

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3. How to save your records of interest and your search strategies

If you want to save the results of your searches, you simply ‘export results page’.

Results of your search are exported to a Word document.

You can also mark specific reviews, using the bookmark button.

Reviews that are marked, can be found at the ‘bookmarks’ page. These marked reviews can be exported using the ‘export to word’ button.

Save your search strategies and bookmarks

You can register yourself freely, to be able to save your searches and bookmarked reviews.

Once registered, you can save you searches, by going to history and click on the save button behind the search that you want to save.

Reviews that are bookmarked will also be saved and can be retrieved from the ‘bookmark-page’ the next times you login.

Alternatively, you can save the URL of the search strategy.

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Appendix 1. Search strategy for finding the reviews on measurement instruments

Search terms used in PubMed

#1: (instruments[tiab] OR scales[tiab] OR Questionnaires[tiab] OR measures[ti] OR methods[ti] OR outcome measurements[tiab] OR (tests[tiab] AND review[tiab]) OR Questionnaires[MeSH] OR interview[MeSH])

#2: (systematic[sb] OR (literature AND search*) OR (Medline AND search*) OR review[ti])

#3: Sensitive PubMed search filter for studies on measurement properties available at: https://www.cosmin.nl/tools/pubmed-search-filters/

#4: (‘delphi-technique’[ti] OR cross-sectional[ti] OR "addresses"[Publication Type] OR "biography"[Publication Type] OR "case reports"[Publication Type] OR "comment"[Publication Type] OR "directory"[Publication Type] OR "editorial"[Publication Type] OR "festschrift"[Publication Type] OR "interview"[Publication Type] OR "lectures"[Publication Type] OR "legal cases"[Publication Type] OR "legislation"[Publication Type] OR "letter"[Publication Type] OR "news"[Publication Type] OR "newspaper article"[Publication Type] OR "patient education handout"[Publication Type] OR "popular works"[Publication Type] OR "congresses"[Publication Type] OR "consensus development conference"[Publication Type] OR "consensus development conference, nih"[Publication Type] OR "practice guideline"[Publication Type]) NOT ("animals"[MeSH Terms] NOT "humans"[MeSH Terms])

#1 AND #2 AND #3 NOT #4

Search terms used in EMBASE.

#1: instruments:ti,ab OR scales:ti,ab OR questionnaires:ti,ab OR measures:ti OR methods:ti OR outcome-measurements:ti,ab OR (tests:ti,ab AND review:ti,ab) OR 'outcomes research'/de OR 'treatment outcome'/de OR 'psychologic test'/de OR 'measurement'/de OR 'functional assessment'/de OR 'pain assessment'/de OR 'questionnaire'/de OR 'rating scale'/de

#2: review:ti OR (literature AND search*) OR (medline AND search*) OR 'systematic review'/exp

#3: EMBASE search filter for studies on measurement properties available at:

https://www.cosmin.nl/tools/pubmed-search-filters/

#4: 'Delphi technique':ti OR Cross-sectional:ti OR 'case report'/de OR letter:it OR animal/exp OR 'animal model'/exp OR 'animal experiment'/exp

#5: #1 AND #2 AND #3;

#6: #5 NOT #4

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