Dr Mukdarut Bangpan

Introduction The number of umbrella reviews (URs) that compiled systematic reviews and meta-analysis (SR-MAs) has increased dramatically over recent years. No formal guidance for assessing the certainty of evidence in URs of meta-analyses exists nowadays. URs of non-interventional studies help establish evidence linking exposure to certain health outcomes in a population. This study aims to identify and describe the methodological approaches for assessing the certainty of the evidence in published URs of non-interventions. Methods We searched from 3 databases including PubMed, Embase, and The Cochrane Library from May 2010 to September 2021. We included URs that included SR-MAs of studies with non-interventions. Two independent reviewers screened and extracted data. We compared URs characteristics stratified by publication year, journal ranking, journal impact factor using Chi-square test. Results Ninety-nine URs have been included. Most were SR-MAs of observational studies evaluati...

Background: Young people are at risk of HIV/AIDS. Research suggests that family can strongly influence sexual decisions of young people. A culturally appropriate understanding of family context is essential to effective HIV intervention. This study aimed to explore to what extent family plays a role in sexual risk behaviour of young Thai women in Bangkok. Methods. We conducted 1) A systematic review of qualitative studies to provide a general understanding of family influences on sexual risk behaviour based on young women’s accounts. Searches were carried out in eight databases, journals, references, and websites. Using a meta-ethnographic approach, 11 studies were synthesised to develop themes relevant to familial influences. 2) Eight focus groups (n=40; 4-6 participants in each group) with young Thai women aged 18-25. The samples were purposely recruited from four sites across Bangkok; a university, a government office, a slum community, and a garment factory. Thematic analysis was carried out based on the focus group data. Results: Three broad themes emerged from the synthesis of qualitative studies: the dynamics of family processes, parental attitudes and behaviour and daughters’ internalisation. Results of focus groups highlight the importance of family processes including parent-child communication, family relationship, and parental monitoring in Thai context. Several factors identified as a barrier to effective parent-child sexual communication, including a lack of parents’ HIV related knowledge, communication skills and Thai conservative values regarding sex. In a broader social context, the findings suggest that sexual decisions in Thai context were rather dynamic and complex, involving different influencing factors including personal, familial, social, and cultural dimensions. Conclusions: When developing HIV interventions with family involvement, it may be useful to understand the role of family in a local context. Future research and HIV interventions in Thailand should consider expanding intervention approaches to target at individual, familial and social levels.

Background: Young people are at high risk of HIV infection and the need for effective preventions remains a priority. Researchers have underscored the importance of family in shaping young people''s sexual behavior. This systematic review assessed whether involving family in HIV interventions is effective in influencing young people''s sexual behavior. Methods: A systematic review of family-involved HIV interventions (FIHIs) was carried out. Eleven bibliographical databases, references of relevant studies and key websites were searched without language and geographical location restrictions. Studies were included if they experimentally evaluated FIHIs targeting young people and reported biological and/or sexual behavior outcomes. Study quality was assessed using a framework adapted from the existing quality assessing tool (Higgins and Altman, 2008). A sensitivity analysis was carried out, restricting findings to studies judged to be low risk of bias. Results: Eighteen studies met inclusion criteria. The majority of the studies were carried out in the US (n=14). The remaining studies each were from Mexico, Bahamas, Japan, and Zimbabwe. All but two studies were randomized controlled trials. Most studies aimed to assess the effect of FIHIs on specific or vulnerable groups including those from low SES, ethnic minorities, or with behavioral problems. Eleven studies were judged to be low risk of bias, employing methodologies to minimize selection and attrition bias, and confounding. Seven low risk of bias studies found significant benefits of FIHIs on one or two condom use measures. Three high risk of bias studies found no significant effect of FIHIs on condom use at last sex. However, there is evidence that FIHIs were unlikely to have the benefit in reducing sexual engagement, self-reported STDs, abstinence, and the number of sexual partners. No low risk studies measured HIV/STD incidence/prevalence were found. Conclusions: There is growing reliable evidence to support the notion that FIHIs can improve self-reported condom use outcomes. Future HIV interventions may benefit from more comprehensive and ecological approaches by involving family to improve safe sex practices in young people. Rigorous FIHI research that assesses biological outcomes is needed.

Abstract Girls and young women are at high risk of infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Many research studies suggest that the family plays an important role in young women's sexual-risk decisions. We conducted a systematic review of qualitative research studies to understand how and to what extent the family influences young women's sexual-risk decisions and sexual-risk behaviour. Systematic literature searches were carried out on eight electronic databases, relevant websites and references of reviews on the topic. Eleven qualitative studies were included in the synthesis. We identified seven major themes across the studies and categorised the themes into three main areas: (1) dynamics of family processes; (2) parental attitudes towards sexuality and gender and (3) daughters' internalisation of parental attitudes. The findings suggest scope for future research and development of HIV interventions for young women. Future qualitative studies in non-western contexts that focus on other family members other than parents would be beneficial to fill gaps in the research.

How do researchers, organizations that support systematic reviews, funders and other stakeholders come to understand what a realist review is and can contribute to important questions in educational policy and practice? This paper presents a case study of the emergence of realist synthesis as a valid practice in relation to a systematic review of school accountability in developing countries. The research team conducting this theory-building realist review (Westhorp, et al, forthcoming 2014, p. 22, fn 7) has methodological expertise in a range of areas related to realist theoretical perspectives and configurative systematic review (Gough, et al., 2012), but none has worked specifically on a systematic realist synthesis (Wong, et al., 2013). The UK Department for International Development, a major funder of systematic reviews in education, is funding the review, and the review is supported by the EPPI Centre, one of the world-leading centres for education-focused systematic reviews. The notion of realist synthesis as an approach to systematic review is relatively novel to both the funder and the support organization. Moreover, realist review is an unknown approach to the highly-experienced practitioners, policy analysts and educational researchers being recruited to the review's advisory group. Nonetheless, funder, sponsor organisation and, potentially, the advisory group are interested in exploring realist approaches to addressing the difficulties confronting reviews of highly-varied sources of information that address the complexities of educational praxis in important policy areas. This instrumental case study (Stake, 1996) focuses on critical incidents (Flanagan, 1954) that arise within the team as well as between the team and those who oversee and will use its work--the funder, sponsor and advisory group. Critical incidents are currently being identified in retrospect, reflected upon through discussion and documented through the consistent use of analytic memos (Maxwell, 2005). The analytic memos will be read as a set and discussed within the research team to identify the pathways through which collective understanding of core concepts and practices has and has not emerged. At the time of this submission, the review protocol has been prepared and approved. Two of the critical incidents being tracked to date include: debate around an initial rough theory and elaboration of embedded, hypothetical middle-range theories that appear to be the most promising loci of theory building; and developing approaches to screening and a coding tool that align with the iterative rhythm of realist review while facilitating challenges to as well as elaboration of initial middle-range theories. The research team is particularly interested in tracing critical incidents that relate working with middle-range theories in the translation of review findings for policy and practice, highlighted by the funder and advisory group members as an overarching concern. This case study intends to add to the emerging body of knowledge around the process of realist review and the development of realist synthesis as a legitimate and institutionalised approach to systematic review in education.

The CEDIL Methods Brief, ‘Engaging stakeholders to co-design rigorous and relevant research and evaluation’, helps researchers consider the options for working with stakeholders and engaging them with the research process and each other when planning or conducting research, or interpreting research findings in order to make actionable recommendations. The brief is based on a CEDIL Methods Working Paper which developed a framework for selecting appropriate methods of engagement by synthesising literature and interviewing a range of stakeholders.

CEDIL’s Methods Working Paper 4 ‘Engaging Stakeholders with Evidence and Uncertainty: Developing a Toolkit’, offers a new framework that helps choose appropriate stakeholder engagement methods while conducting research and supporting decision-making. The framework provides the foundation for a toolkit that distinguishes major differences in stakeholder engagement, illustrates pathways for choosing appropriate methods for stakeholder engagement, signposts evidence and practical tools to support stakeholder engagement, and guidance for identifying and understanding stakeholders and their relationships.

Understanding the extent to which an intervention ‘works’ can provide compelling evidence to decision-makers, although without an accompanying explanation of how an intervention works, this evidence can be difficult to apply in other settings, ultimately impeding its usefulness in making judicious and evidence-informed decisions. In this paper, we describe causal chain analysis as involving the development of a logic model, which outlines graphically a hypothesis of how an intervention leads to a change in an outcome. This logic model is then used to anchor subsequent decisions in the systematic review process, including decisions on synthesis. In this paper, we outline the steps taken in building a logic model, which usually consists of a series of boxes depicting intervention components and processes, outputs, and outcomes with arrows depicting connecting relationships. The nature of these connecting relationships and their basis in causality are considered, through a focus on com...

This paper investigates stakeholder engagement with decision-making and research for international aid and social development, to encourage decisions that are both evidence-informed and appropriate to their context. The vision is for policy makers, programme managers and practitioners making decisions to engage with formal research about causal relationships and contextual influences (such as impact evaluations or systematic reviews), and to combine this with the know-how and tacit knowledge from those most intimately involved in the issues at hand. The rationale is that: stakeholders make better decisions when they engage with research findings; stakeholder engagement with the research process leads to research that takes into account their interests and concerns; and, in the absence of research, stakeholders’ familiarity with the local context is the starting point for informing decisions and new research.

In the last few decades, there has been an increasing use of, and demand for, high-quality evidence among decision makers in international development. Evidence from research leads to claims about the effects of intervening in people’s lives to improve specific outcomes. However, this raises the question of how such evidence claims are framed, justified and communicated. This review aims to address this important question by reviewing research findings from impact evaluations and systematic reviews to understand the nature and the scope of evidence claims in the global South.

How do researchers, organizations that support systematic reviews, funders and other stakeholders come to understand what a realist review is and can contribute to important questions in educational policy and practice? This paper presents a case study of the emergence of realist synthesis as a valid practice in relation to a systematic review of school accountability in developing countries. The research team conducting this theory-building realist review (Westhorp, et al, forthcoming 2014, p. 22, fn 7) has methodological expertise in a range of areas related to realist theoretical perspectives and configurative systematic review (Gough, et al., 2012), but none has worked specifically on a systematic realist synthesis (Wong, et al., 2013). The UK Department for International Development, a major funder of systematic reviews in education, is funding the review, and the review is supported by the EPPI Centre, one of the world-leading centres for education-focused systematic reviews. The notion of realist synthesis as an approach to systematic review is relatively novel to both the funder and the support organization. Moreover, realist review is an unknown approach to the highly-experienced practitioners, policy analysts and educational researchers being recruited to the review's advisory group. Nonetheless, funder, sponsor organisation and, potentially, the advisory group are interested in exploring realist approaches to addressing the difficulties confronting reviews of highly-varied sources of information that address the complexities of educational praxis in important policy areas. This instrumental case study (Stake, 1996) focuses on critical incidents (Flanagan, 1954) that arise within the team as well as between the team and those who oversee and will use its work--the funder, sponsor and advisory group. Critical incidents are currently being identified in retrospect, reflected upon through discussion and documented through the consistent use of analytic memos (Maxwell, 2005). The analytic memos will be read as a set and discussed within the research team to identify the pathways through which collective understanding of core concepts and practices has and has not emerged. At the time of this submission, the review protocol has been prepared and approved. Two of the critical incidents being tracked to date include: debate around an initial rough theory and elaboration of embedded, hypothetical middle-range theories that appear to be the most promising loci of theory building; and developing approaches to screening and a coding tool that align with the iterative rhythm of realist review while facilitating challenges to as well as elaboration of initial middle-range theories. The research team is particularly interested in tracing critical incidents that relate working with middle-range theories in the translation of review findings for policy and practice, highlighted by the funder and advisory group members as an overarching concern. This case study intends to add to the emerging body of knowledge around the process of realist review and the development of realist synthesis as a legitimate and institutionalised approach to systematic review in education.

In the last few decades, there has been an increasing use of, and demand for, high-quality research among decision-makers in international development. Wanting to know whether, how and where interventions work, they find statements made or implied to be supported by research evidence. These statements are ‘evidence claims’. Other people may question whether the evidence supporting the claims has been compiled or scrutinised appropriately. This raises the question of how such evidence claims are framed, justified and communicated. A new review aims to address this important question by reviewing research findings from impact evaluations and systematic reviews to understand the nature and the scope of evidence claims produced from low- and middle-income country (LMIC) research. This evidence brief shares key findings from this review.

Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) has attracted wide attention with its potential to alleviate poverty and improve youth employment in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). However, no agreement has been reached on its impact on participants’ wellbeing and livelihoods. Most previous reviews were restricted to economic and employment-related outcomes through statistical meta-analyses and failed to examine participants’ comprehensive experiences. This systematic review investigated young people’s learning process and consequences of TVET participation in LMICs by reviewing qualitative evidence across 31 published and unpublished studies from 2000 to 2019. Adopting a framework thematic synthesis approach, this study revealed that TVET participation had a multi-dimensional impact on young people’s cultural capital (skills and knowledge, credentials and socio-emotional competencies), social capital (bonding, bridging and linking social relationships), aspirations...

"Background: The past few years has seen the number of systematic reviews relevant to developing countries increase substantially. It is essential that systematic reviews include all available, relevant evidence to minimize bias and maximize the generalisability of their findings across settings. Recently, The Norwegian satellite of the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care (EPOC) group and its partners produced a collection of search sources relevant to developing countries. Objective: To explore the usage of regional databases and other search sources used in systematic reviews relevant to developing countries focusing on healthcare. Method: We identified Cochrane Systematic Reviews using ‘developing countries’ terms in both free text and MeSH term searches. The retrieved citations were imported into EPPI-Reviewer software. Data on databases and search sources were coded and analysed. Result: We identified 34 relevant systematic reviews; 32 were published in the past five years. Nearly two-thirds (n= 23) carried out searches in regional databases. The most commonly searched regional database was LILACS (n=20), followed by MEDCARIB (n=3) and African Index Medicus (n=3). Nearly half also searched topic-specific databases (e.g. ERIC, POPLINE, AGRIS). Searches in grey literature (e.g. dissertations, conference proceeding databases), international development specialists (e.g. ELDIS, BLDS) and non-English databases (e.g. Banque de Données Santé Publique database) were less common. Further sourcing methods included references checking, website searching and personal contact with experts, authors, and/or relevant organisations. Conclusion: Identifying relevant research evidence in developing countries is challenging. Most systematic reviews identified searched only one regional database, namely LILACS. There is potential to improve search strategies by including other regional databases and other search sources to identify relevant research evidence in health in developing countries. "

The CEDIL Methods Brief, ‘Engaging stakeholders to co-design rigorous and relevant research and evaluation’, helps researchers consider the options for working with stakeholders and engaging them with the research process and each other when planning or conducting research, or interpreting research findings in order to make actionable recommendations. The brief is based on a CEDIL Methods Working Paper which developed a framework for selecting appropriate methods of engagement by synthesising literature and interviewing a range of stakeholders.

In the past decades, HIV prevention efforts in Thailand have been remarkably successful, resulting in Thailand being one of the few developing countries that has met the Millennium Development Goal 6. However, recent epidemiological trends have suggested that young Thai women are increasingly at risk for HIV/STDs infection. In light of recent evidence of the HIV risk among young Thai women, there is a need to develop culturally appropriate HIV intervention programmes. In this seminar, I present findings from three research projects including two systematic reviews and primary research in Thailand. The discussion will focus on findings from qualitative investigation of 40 young women in Bangkok.

Mukdarut Bangpan is a research officer at the EPPI-Centre, Social Science Research Unit. Her research interests include social interventions, health and well being of children and women in developing countries and methodological development of systematic reviews. "

Introduction: Young people are at risk of HIV/AIDS. Research suggests that family can strongly influence
sexual decisions of young people. A culturally appropriate understanding of family context is essential to
effective HIV intervention. This study aims to explore to what extent family plays a role in sexual risk behavior
of young Thai women in Bangkok.
Methods: We conducted
1) A systematic review of qualitative studies to provide a general understanding of family influences on sexual
risk behavior based on young women's accounts. Searches were carried out in eight databases, journals,
references, and websites. Using a meta-ethnographic approach, 11 studies were synthesized to develop themes
relevant to familial influences.
2) Eight focus groups (n=40; 4-6 participants in each group) with young Thai women aged 18-25. The samples
were purposely recruited from four sites across Bangkok; a university, a government office, a slum community,
and a garment factory. Thematic analysis was carried out based on the focus group data.
Results: Three broad themes emerged from the synthesis of qualitative studies: the dynamics of family
processes, parental attitudes and behavior and daughters' internalization. Results of the focus groups highlight
the importance of family processes including parent-child communication, family relationship, and parental
monitoring in Thai context. Several factors were identified as a barrier to effective parent-child sexual
communication, including a lack of parents' HIV related knowledge, communication skills and Thai conservative
values regarding sex. In a broader social context, the findings suggest that sexual decisions of young Thai
women were rather dynamic and complex, involving different influencing factors from personal, familial, social,
and cultural dimensions.
Conclusion: When developing HIV interventions with family involvement, it may be useful to understand the
role of family in a local context. Future research and HIV interventions in Thailand should consider expanding
intervention approaches to target at individual, familial and social levels.

Background:
The past few years has seen the number of systematic reviews relevant to developing countries increase substantially. It is essential that systematic reviews include all available, relevant evidence to minimize bias and maximize the generalisability of their findings across settings. Recently, The Norwegian satellite of the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care (EPOC) group and its partners produced a collection of search sources relevant to developing countries.

Objective: To explore the usage of regional databases and other search sources used in systematic reviews relevant to developing countries focusing on healthcare.
Method: We identified Cochrane Systematic Reviews using ‘developing countries’ terms in both free text and MeSH term searches. The retrieved citations were imported into EPPI-Reviewer software. Data on databases and search sources were coded and analysed.

Result: We identified 34 relevant systematic reviews; 32 were published in the past five years. Nearly two-thirds (n= 23) carried out searches in regional databases. The most commonly searched regional database was LILACS (n=20), followed by MEDCARIB (n=3) and African Index Medicus (n=3). Nearly half also searched topic-specific databases (e.g. ERIC, POPLINE, AGRIS). Searches in grey literature (e.g. dissertations, conference proceeding databases), international development specialists (e.g. ELDIS, BLDS) and non-English databases (e.g. Banque de Données Santé Publique database) were less common. Further sourcing methods included references checking, website searching and personal contact with experts, authors, and/or relevant organisations.

Conclusion: Identifying relevant research evidence in developing countries is challenging. Most systematic reviews identified searched only one regional database, namely LILACS. There is potential to improve search strategies by including other regional databases and other search sources to identify relevant research evidence in health in developing countries.