Week 2 - Searching for studies

For the second week of my senior project, I began applying the search parameters I had begun developing last week to begin identifying studies for my meta-analysis. I started with PubMed, since it is, as I mentioned last week, one of the largest databases for medical research. Using the concepts I had defined, I employed a search strategy that followed the format of “discharge” (plus synonyms) AND “intervention” (plus synonyms) AND “readmission” (plus synonyms). The use of AND was to prevent casting a too broad net as it requires the resulting studies to contain all three words. Synonyms of each of the three required words/categories were separated by OR since different studies may use each interchangeably or with negligible difference in definition that I will have to further identify during a deeper read later.

While building the search, I noticed that some of the more specific phrases I initially considered were not found in the PubMed phrase index. To avoid unnecessarily limiting my results and potentially losing exposure to relevant studies, I simplified some terms to make the search broader and more inclusive. For example, the phrase “simplified written instructions” was adjusted to the more general term “written instructions.” Making these adjustments helped ensure that relevant studies using slightly different terminology would still appear in the search results.

After finalizing the search terms, the initial search on PubMed produced 320 results. To narrow these results to higher-quality and more relevant studies, I applied article type filters. Specifically, I limited the results to randomized controlled trials (RCTs), clinical trials, and systematic reviews, as these study types tend to be more robust and reliable and are often used in meta-analyses. I also set the publication date to the past fifteen years (2011–2026) to ensure the research reflects more current healthcare practices. Applying these filters reduced the results to 70 studies.

From there, I conducted a preliminary title screening to determine whether each study was broadly relevant to my research question. During this stage, I removed studies that clearly fell outside the scope of my project, such as pediatric-focused research, since I am aiming to focus on adult patients. This screening eliminated 17 studies, leaving a smaller and more manageable group for deeper abstract review in the coming weeks.