Eligibility criteria
The eligibility criteria were guided by the research question as well as objectives by the outcome measures that will be considered to answer the study question, including methodology, study design, as well as analysis techniques. The inclusion criteria included all articles that contained catheter-related infections in general regardless of age, sex, and type of infection. The exclusion criteria involved articles that were specific to certain kinds of catheter-related infections, while at the same time were clear on sex, age, as well as geographical location.
Information sources
Most of the sources were obtained from the PubMed database as well as other online scholarly databases with books related to the research topic. PubMed is a popular free search engine that has access to the Medline database containing references and as well as an abstract on life sciences and biomedical topics. The database has sufficient resources regarding the matter in review. All the articles used in the systematic review were published in the last fifteen years.
Search Strategy
The strategy of obtaining source materials involved using keywords to search medical databases, such as PubMed, to obtain the necessary information. PubMed is an excellent database since it has several functionalities that are useful in research. After using keywords to search the database, PubMed provided an option of moving the selection (the first 46 results) to a clipboard where all the documents were listed for research and citation. Predominantly English-language articled were identified from PubMed literature searches, references from published articles, as well as infection-control textbooks.
Data Extraction
The Critical Appraisal Skills Program was essential in developing an evidence-based strategy in extracting data from the articles’ systematic reviews.
Risk of Bias
The risk of bias assessment is a critical component of systematic reviews. The risk of bias assessment was used to explore the heterogeneity of search results in interpreting the estimate of effect through sensitivity analysis. A credibility evaluation was also done on all of the identified sources of information.