Systematic reviews require structural inclusion and exclusion criteria to assess each potential primary study. Before searching articles for systematic review, the applicable criteria should be applied to ensure that relevant studies were included and no study was excluded without in-depth evaluation. This process is necessary for systematic review because it reduces the risk of bias, increases transparency, and ensures consistency amongst the research team (Van Spall et al., 2007).
Inclusion Criteria
The inclusion criteria for this systematic literature review included non-pharmacology intervention studies which examined the effectiveness of treatments on progressing to Type IV in adult diagnosed with Type I heart failure. The primary interventions included but not limited to: diet, exercise, nurse education or counseling, coping training, …show more content…
The exclusion criteria were participants recruited in the intensive care unit, emergency department, terminal illness or hospice care. The participants who have an alternate level of conscious and cognitive were excluded in the systematic review. The rationale for these exclusions were that participants should have been in a state where they were clinically stable and able to participate in non-pharmacology interventions. They should have been able to answer the questionnaires. The participants who were under 18-years-old were excluded. This systematic review also excluded studies that were reported in languages other than English basically because of the practical difficulty of translation. The studies that did not include sufficient statistics for computing effect sizes although the studies otherwise met the eligibility criteria were excluded. Finally, descriptive, case study, studies without sampling procedure and anecdotal articles were excluded due to lack of strong evidence-based