DE-PASS Training School: Determinants of Physical Activity Behaviours – Focus on Older Adults (Virtual Mobility Grant): Dr Simone Ciaccioni
With this important Cost DE-PASS Virtual Mobility, as deputy leader for the Older Adults focus team Simone Ciaccioni had the opportunity to provide useful information on the definition of determinants of physical activity behaviours with advancing age, and the difference between determinants and outcomes, which will affect the assessment of quality of studies and evaluation of risks of bias.
The review team is international (e.g., Belgium, Finland, Italy, Luxemburg, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Swiss, Turkiye, UK) and gender-balanced (F=51%). Another central goal was to train participants (i.e., Cost members, ECI, and Postgraduate students) in the use of Covidence web app, which assists researchers to screen references and undertake data extraction. This web app are helping Cost DE-PASS members to save their time spent in review (≈35% reduction), enabling the whole review team to collaborate from anywhere, in a variety of sectors including Health, Education, Social and Sport Science.
The training provided:
1) Scenarios for the correct identification of physical activity determinants;
2) An introduction to the systematic literature review (e.g., screening, data extraction, quality assessment, data cleaning and meta-analysis, writing of the papers);
3) A presentation of the title and abstract screening stage in Covidence;
4) The directions on the correct use of the decision tree with the explanation of the inclusion and exclusion criteria including detailed notes. While Simone developed the tutorials, the core-group members reviewed and approved them.
Through a kick-off meeting, the video tutorials, the decision tree of inclusion/exclusion criteria and specific directions, the review team members are now ready to begin and proceed with the first stage of the review process (i.e., title and abstract screening). The delivered scenarios and tools will allow DE-PASS reviewers to appraise the validity, strengths and weaknesses of studies.
Full-text screening has now been reached, and we will begin the process of the next phase: data extraction and risk of bias assessment.
We will inform our DE-PASS colleagues of our progress once this next phase has been completed!
