Have you ever heard seemingly contradictory research about social media and adolescent health? For scientists, writing a systematic review is one way they can make sense of this. A systematic review is defined as a methodology that integrates all relevant work and content published on a subject, synthesized into one comprehensive review (Moore, K. , 2019). The review aggregates different studies on a topic into a single piece of research. Systematic reviews can be valuable as they allow researchers to make sense of and understand a general overview of the findings of research on a topic in a given time period. Additionally, conducting systematic reviews allows a researcher to comment, expand on, and develop theories. Systematic reviews have become especially important in recent years, as there are more studies being conducted and published than ever before (Chakradar, S., 2019).
Strengths and Challenges of Systematic Reviews
With the growing popularity of systematic reviews, it is important to discuss their strengths and limitations. Their rigorous methodology is important, especially in the field of social media and adolescent health, where there has been a growing interest in understanding the affordances that social media can provide to adolescents and associated positive or negative health outcomes. Systematic reviews give the researcher the ability to establish consistency and generalizability of their research findings to a greater extent than the findings of a single study (Owens, J., 2021). As a result, they allow a high level of confidence in their findings compared to an individual paper. At the same time, however, systematic reviews do have their challenges. They are time-consuming and involve many careful steps across a number of researchers. In some cases, they may not be as easy to digest as single study or literature reviews. The data visuals may take time to comprehend, and reviews are known to be extensive and detailed. Another challenge is that as systematic reviews are becoming increasingly popular, there is a risk of duplicative systematic reviews covering overlapping topics (Dellapina, 2022). However, overall systematic reviews are an important means for scientists to present and inform the public on their research. With this in mind, how does one begin to conduct a systematic review?
Systematic reviews can be conducted differently depending on the purpose, but a common process will include determining the research topic, planning the systematic review, identifying relevant articles, evaluating included studies, and analyzing results. Understanding this process can be helpful to interpreting systematic reviews.
Determine The Research Topic
First, the researcher determines the research topic, then identifies a specific question within that topic. Often this step involves identifying an area in which many studies have been completed, where it would be valuable to understand patterns across findings. The researcher also confirms that a previous systematic review on their topic has not been completed.
Planning for the Systematic Review
Once the topic and research question have been determined, the methods for undergoing research must be planned. The researcher develops a detailed plan for extensively searching papers from relevant research databases. The plan also includes inclusion and exclusion criteria, which are used to determine which papers or studies should be included or not.
Identifying Relevant Articles
The researcher then carries out the search strategy and seeks to identify relevant articles from the research databases. Thousands of potentially relevant research articles may be identified, and the reviewer may assemble a team to work together on evaluating which papers will be included in the review.
Evaluating Included Studies
After relevant studies have been determined, a team of researchers evaluate papers based on predefined criteria to understand study findings and assess study quality. They may ask such questions as to whether positive or negative associations were found in each paper. They may also evaluate study quality via such questions as to how sample characteristics and potential sources of bias are described.
Analyzing Results
Once studies have been evaluated, researchers analyze data, sometimes using statistical techniques, to understand patterns in study characteristics, quality and findings (Khan, K. & Kunz, R. & Kleijnen, J. & Antes, G.).
Interpretation & Dissemination
Researchers then begin the process of presenting the systematic review, which they may do at a research conference or in a research article. Tables and diagrams are often created using relevant data to demonstrate findings that answer their research question. Once this process is complete, the systematic review can be prepared for publication. SMAHRT in particular has used this process a number of times for past systematic reviews.
Past SMAHRT Systematic Reviews
In the past, SMAHRT has conducted systematic reviews on various social media and adolescent health topics. The “Problematic Internet Use Among US Youth: A Systematic Review” investigated the prevalence of problematic internet use (PIU) among teens and college students (Moreno et al., 2011). The research combined three different databases of medical and social science literature, and focused on studies that investigated PIU. It found that the wide range of conceptual approaches to measuring PIU impacted the prevalence reporting rates. This was likely as a result of the studies using different mechanisms and scales to measure PIUs, as well as the criteria to deem a situation as a PIU. The review drew the conclusion that further investigative studies into PIUs were needed to come to a conclusion and a more uniform method to measure PIU needed to be conducted (Moreno et al., 2011).
Today, systematic reviews are an increasingly important method for researchers to aggregate and synthesize information, especially with the barrage of studies being published. They can also be very useful and informative when there have been many studies investigating a similar topic. SMAHRT continues to use systematic reviews to study adolescent health in relation to social media usage.