Referee report. For: Outcomes in intervention research on snakebite envenomation: a systematic review [version 1; peer review: 2 approved]

Julien Potet
2022
A core outcome set (COS) is a minimal list of consensus outcomes that should be used in all intervention research in a specific domain. COS enhance the ability to undertake meaningful comparisons and to understand the benefits or harms of different treatments. A first step in developing a COS is to identify outcomes that have been used previously. We did this global systematic review to provide the foundation for development of a region-specific COS for snakebite envenomation. Methods: We
more » ... ed 15 electronic databases, eight trial registries, and reference lists of included studies to identify reports of relevant trials, protocols, registry records and systematic reviews. We extracted verbatim data on outcomes, their definitions, measures, and timepoints. Outcomes were classified as per an existing outcome taxonomy, and we identified unique outcomes based on similarities in the definition and measurement of the verbatim outcomes. Results: We included 107 records for 97 studies which met our inclusion criteria. These reported 538 outcomes, with a wide variety of outcome measures, definitions, and time points for measurement. We consolidated these into 88 unique outcomes, which we classified into core areas of mortality (1, 1.14 %), life impact (6, 6.82%), resource use (15, 17.05%), adverse events (7, 7.95%), physiological/clinical (51, 57.95%), and composite (8, 9.09%) outcomes. The types of outcomes
doi:10.5256/f1000research.134062.r153142 fatcat:3o77iyioz5cprfyrzbz7k5thpu