2 Materials and Methods
To conduct this rapid review, we employed abbreviated systematic review
methods. Compared with the methods of a systematic review, the review
team applied the following methodological shortcuts for this rapid
review:
• No searches in trial registries
• Only 30% of abstracts were dually screened
• No dual independent risk of bias assessment and rating of the
certainty of evidence; one investigator conducted the ratings, a second
investigator checked the plausibility and correctness. We adhered to the
Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses
(PRISMA) throughout this manuscript.18
2.1 Literature search
An experienced information specialist conducted a systematic search of
the literature published in English or German from January 1, 2002 to
February 12, 2020 in Ovid MEDLINE, the WHO Global Index Medicus, Embase
(Elsevier), and CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health
Literature) (Ebsco). A second information specialist reviewed the
MEDLINE search strategy. Annex A presents the detailed search
strategies.
In addition, WHO provided a list of citations and abstracts from
articles published in Chinese-language journals that was prepared by the
WHO Collaborating Centre for Guideline Implementation and Knowledge
Translation, Lanzhou, China. Manual searches of selected international
journals as well as searches of the following bibliographic databases
were conducted: CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure),
Embase.com (Elsevier), PubMed. For articles published in Chinese only,
the Collaborating Centre prepared an English translation of the
abstracts. If no abstract was available, the Collaborating Centre
provided a “Brief Summary” in English. This list was updated on a
daily basis. The last date of the search considered for this review was
February 16, 2020. One team member of the WHO Collaborating Centre in
Austria searched a WHO database19 containing results
of daily literature searches on COVID-19 (up to February 16, 2020). In
addition, review authors screened reference lists of systematic reviews
on quarantine in general, and included studies for additional relevant
citations.
2.2 Eligibility criteria
Table 1 presents the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The WHO expert
panel selected four outcomes that they deemed relevant for their
decision-making process: outward transmission, incident cases of
COVID-19, mortality, and resource use. We graded the certainty of
evidence for these outcomes. We report on other patient-relevant
outcomes in the Results section, but we did not grade the certainty of
evidence.
Table
1. Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria of the Rapid Review