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Table 5 CERQual assessments of relevance in the context of a review finding––examples of moderate concerns

From: Applying GRADE-CERQual to qualitative evidence synthesis findings–paper 6: how to assess relevance of the data

Review question: what are the experiences of African women regarding medically assisted birth in public hospitals in African countries?a

Finding 1: women feel that they are forced into having a medically assisted birth by medical staff in hospital settings

Dimensions of context to consider as specified in the question and protocol

Assessment of relevance of each study contributing to the finding mapped against the review question context

Direct relevance

Indirect relevance

Partial relevance

Uncertain relevance

Time: 2000––present

Study 1

Study 2

Study 3

Study 4

 

Study 5

Study 6

 

Place (country): African countries

Study 1

Study 2

Study 3

Study 4

Study 5

Study 6

   

Phenomenon of interest: African women’s experiences of medically assisted birth in public hospitals in African countries

Study 1

Study 3

 

Study 2

Study 4

Study 5

Study 6

 

Health system: publicly funded health services

Study 2

Study 1

Health system private

Study 3

Study 5

Study 6

Health system includes public/private mix

Study 4

Health system unclear

Population/perspective: African women’s perspectives

Study 1

Study 2

Study 3

Study 4

Study 5

Study 6

 

Study 3

Participants include non-African women giving birth in African countries

 

CERQual assessment of relevanceb

Moderate concerns about relevance because three studies focussed on birth in general and attitudes to medically assisted birth whether women had as assisted birth or not. The health systems within which women were treated in five contributing studies overlapped with or varied from the context of the synthesis question. A small number of women whose views contributed to the synthesis were not African but they experienced the same issues giving birth in hospitals in African countries as African women. Two studies overlapped with the time period in question and included women whose experiences predated 2000.

  1. aHypothetical example generated from Bohren et al. [10]
  2. bAlso see paper 2 in this series on making an overall CERQual assessment [6]