dissertations, conference proceedings, correspondence
Review articles, systematic reviews, meta-analysis, practice guidelines, monographs on a specific subject
Textbooks, encyclopedias, handbooks, newspapers
These examples and descriptions of publication types will give you an idea of how to use various works and why you would want to write a particular kind of paper.
Scholarly (aka empirical) article -- example
Empirical studies use data derived from observation or experiment. Original research papers (also called primary research articles) that describe empirical studies and their results are published in academic journals. Articles that report empirical research contain different sections which relate to the steps of the scientific method.
Abstract - The abstract provides a very brief summary of the research.
Introduction - The introduction sets the research in a context, which provides a review of related research and develops the hypotheses for the research.
Method - The method section describes how the research was conducted.
Results - The results section describes the outcomes of the study.
Discussion - The discussion section contains the interpretations and implications of the study.
References - A references section lists the articles, books, and other material cited in the report.
Review article -- example
A review article summarizes a particular field of study and places the recent research in context. It provides an overview and is an excellent introduction to a subject area. The references used in a review article are helpful as they lead to more in-depth research.
Many databases have limits or filters to search for review articles. You can also search by keywords like review article, survey, overview, summary, etc.
Conference proceedings, abstracts and reports -- example
Conference proceedings, abstracts and reports are not usually peer-reviewed. A conference article is similar to a scholarly article insofar as it is academic. Conference articles are published much more quickly than scholarly articles. You can find conference papers in many of the same places as scholarly articles.
To identify an article based on empirical research, look for the following characteristics:
The article is published in a peer-reviewed journal .
The article includes charts, graphs, or statistical analysis .
The article is substantial in size , likely to be more than 5 pages long.
The article contains the following parts (the exact terms may vary): abstract, introduction, method, results, discussion, references .
Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods articles, why does this matter.
Scholarly articles come in many different formats each with their own function in the scholarly conversation. The following are a few of the major types of scholarly articles you are likely to encounter as you become a part of the conversation. Identifying the different types of scholarly articles and knowing their function will help you become a better researcher.
Adapted from the Publication manual of the American Psychological Association : the official guide to APA style. (Sixth edition.). (2013). American Psychological Association.
Qualitative articles ask "why" questions where as quantitative articles ask "how many/how much?" questions. These approaches are are not mutually exclusive. In fact, many articles combine the two in a mixed-methods approach.
Qualitative | Quantitative | Mixed-Methods | |
---|---|---|---|
Purpose | Answer "Why?" question | Answer "How many/How much?" question | Combination of each |
Data | Observations, words, images | Numerical data and statistics | Combination of each |
Method | Interpretation | Measure | Combination of each |
Analysis | compare and contrast; make observations | Statistical Analysis | Combination of each |
We can think of these different kinds of scholarly articles as different tools designed for different tasks. What research task do you need to accomplish? Do you need to get up to date on a give topic? Find a literature review. Do you need to find a hypothesis to test or to extend? Find an empirical study. Do you need to explore methodologies? Find a methodological article.
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Literature reviews are a main part of the research process. Literature Reviews can be stand-alone research projects, or they can be part of a larger research study. In both cases, literature reviews must follow specific guidelines so they can meet the rigorous requirements for being classified as a scientific contribution. More importantly, these reviews must be transparent so that they can be replicated or reproduced if desired. The rigorous requirements set out by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) aim to support researchers in conducting literature reviews as well as address the replication crisis that has challenged scientific disciplines over the past decade. The current chapter identifies some of the requirements along with highlighting different types of reviews and recommendations for conducting a rigorous review.
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John R. Turner
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© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
Turner, J.R. (2023). Literature Reviews: An Overview of Systematic, Integrated, and Scoping Reviews. In: Jagadeesh, G., Balakumar, P., Senatore, F. (eds) The Quintessence of Basic and Clinical Research and Scientific Publishing. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-1284-1_38
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Literature review types -- comparing, learning about study designs, critically appraised topics -- writing, integrative lit review.
Types of Literature Reviews:
Critically Appraised Topic (CATs) : A critically appraised topic (or CAT) is a short summary of evidence on a topic of interest, usually focused around a clinical question. A CAT is like a shorter and less rigorous version of a systematic review, summarizing the best available research evidence on a topic.
Integrative Review: A review via a systematic approach that uses a detailed search strategy to find relevant evidence to answer a targeted clinical question. Evidence can come from RCTs, observational studies, qualitative research, clinical experts, and other types of evidence. Does not use summary statistics.
Meta-analysis: a quantitative statistical analysis of several separate but similar experiments or studies in order to test the pooled data for statistical significance.
Narrative or Traditional Review: Critical research summary on a topic of interest, often to put a research problem into context. Captures a “snapshot” of the clinical problem or issue.
Rapid Review : A rapid literature review (RLR) is an alternative to systematic literature review (SLR) that can speed up the analysis of newly published data.
Scoping Review A s coping review is a descriptive approach, designed to chart the literature around a particular topic. It involves an extensive literature search and often uses structured mapping or charting of the literature.
Systematic Review : Comprehensive search strategies and rigorous research appraisal methods surrounding a clinical issue or question. Evidence is primarily based upon RCTs . Used to summarize, appraise, & communicate contradictory results or unmanageable amounts of research.
Umbrella Review : An umbrella review is a systematic collection and assessment of multiple systematic reviews and meta-analyses on a specific research topic
Critically Appraised Topics (CATs)
Integrative Review: A review via a systematic approach that uses a detailed search strategy to find relevant evidence to answer a targeted clinical question. Evidence can come from RCTs, observational studies, qualitative research, clinical experts, and other types of evidence. Does not use summary statistics.
Resources listed on these guides are compiled by librarians at the R.A. Williams Library. We accept content recommendations, and after review, may include suggested resources on a guide. Our time is limited, so we generally do not reply to unsolicited recommendations from individuals not affiliated with AdventHealth University or notify them regarding whether or not we have linked to suggested content.
Reproduced from Grant, M. J. and Booth, A. (2009), A typology of reviews: an analysis of 14 review types and associated methodologies. Health Information & Libraries Journal, 26: 91–108. doi:10.1111/j.1471-1842.2009.00848.x
Aims to demonstrate writer has extensively researched literature and critically evaluated its quality. Goes beyond mere description to include degree of analysis and conceptual innovation. Typically results in hypothesis or mode | Seeks to identify most significant items in the field | No formal quality assessment. Attempts to evaluate according to contribution | Typically narrative, perhaps conceptual or chronological | Significant component: seeks to identify conceptual contribution to embody existing or derive new theory | |
Generic term: published materials that provide examination of recent or current literature. Can cover wide range of subjects at various levels of completeness and comprehensiveness. May include research findings | May or may not include comprehensive searching | May or may not include quality assessment | Typically narrative | Analysis may be chronological, conceptual, thematic, etc. | |
Mapping review/ systematic map | Map out and categorize existing literature from which to commission further reviews and/or primary research by identifying gaps in research literature | Completeness of searching determined by time/scope constraints | No formal quality assessment | May be graphical and tabular | Characterizes quantity and quality of literature, perhaps by study design and other key features. May identify need for primary or secondary research |
Technique that statistically combines the results of quantitative studies to provide a more precise effect of the results | Aims for exhaustive, comprehensive searching. May use funnel plot to assess completeness | Quality assessment may determine inclusion/ exclusion and/or sensitivity analyses | Graphical and tabular with narrative commentary | Numerical analysis of measures of effect assuming absence of heterogeneity | |
Refers to any combination of methods where one significant component is a literature review (usually systematic). Within a review context it refers to a combination of review approaches for example combining quantitative with qualitative research or outcome with process studies | Requires either very sensitive search to retrieve all studies or separately conceived quantitative and qualitative strategies | Requires either a generic appraisal instrument or separate appraisal processes with corresponding checklists | Typically both components will be presented as narrative and in tables. May also employ graphical means of integrating quantitative and qualitative studies | Analysis may characterise both literatures and look for correlations between characteristics or use gap analysis to identify aspects absent in one literature but missing in the other | |
Generic term: summary of the [medical] literature that attempts to survey the literature and describe its characteristics | May or may not include comprehensive searching (depends whether systematic overview or not) | May or may not include quality assessment (depends whether systematic overview or not) | Synthesis depends on whether systematic or not. Typically narrative but may include tabular features | Analysis may be chronological, conceptual, thematic, etc. | |
Method for integrating or comparing the findings from qualitative studies. It looks for ‘themes’ or ‘constructs’ that lie in or across individual qualitative studies | May employ selective or purposive sampling | Quality assessment typically used to mediate messages not for inclusion/exclusion | Qualitative, narrative synthesis | Thematic analysis, may include conceptual models | |
Assessment of what is already known about a policy or practice issue, by using systematic review methods to search and critically appraise existing research | Completeness of searching determined by time constraints | Time-limited formal quality assessment | Typically narrative and tabular | Quantities of literature and overall quality/direction of effect of literature | |
Preliminary assessment of potential size and scope of available research literature. Aims to identify nature and extent of research evidence (usually including ongoing research) | Completeness of searching determined by time/scope constraints. May include research in progress | No formal quality assessment | Typically tabular with some narrative commentary | Characterizes quantity and quality of literature, perhaps by study design and other key features. Attempts to specify a viable review | |
Tend to address more current matters in contrast to other combined retrospective and current approaches. May offer new perspectives | Aims for comprehensive searching of current literature | No formal quality assessment | Typically narrative, may have tabular accompaniment | Current state of knowledge and priorities for future investigation and research | |
Seeks to systematically search for, appraise and synthesis research evidence, often adhering to guidelines on the conduct of a review | Aims for exhaustive, comprehensive searching | Quality assessment may determine inclusion/exclusion | Typically narrative with tabular accompaniment | What is known; recommendations for practice. What remains unknown; uncertainty around findings, recommendations for future research | |
Combines strengths of critical review with a comprehensive search process. Typically addresses broad questions to produce ‘best evidence synthesis’ | Aims for exhaustive, comprehensive searching | May or may not include quality assessment | Minimal narrative, tabular summary of studies | What is known; recommendations for practice. Limitations | |
Attempt to include elements of systematic review process while stopping short of systematic review. Typically conducted as postgraduate student assignment | May or may not include comprehensive searching | May or may not include quality assessment | Typically narrative with tabular accompaniment | What is known; uncertainty around findings; limitations of methodology | |
Specifically refers to review compiling evidence from multiple reviews into one accessible and usable document. Focuses on broad condition or problem for which there are competing interventions and highlights reviews that address these interventions and their results | Identification of component reviews, but no search for primary studies | Quality assessment of studies within component reviews and/or of reviews themselves | Graphical and tabular with narrative commentary | What is known; recommendations for practice. What remains unknown; recommendations for future research |
Advanced Search
Background The overall burden of bronchiectasis on patients and healthcare systems has not been comprehensively described. Here, we present the findings of a systematic literature review that assessed the clinical and socioeconomic burden of bronchiectasis with subanalyses by aetiology (PROSPERO registration: CRD42023404162).
Methods Embase, MEDLINE and the Cochrane Library were searched for publications relating to bronchiectasis disease burden (December 2017–December 2022). Journal articles and congress abstracts reporting on observational studies, randomised controlled trials and registry studies were included. Editorials, narrative reviews and systematic literature reviews were included to identify primary studies. PRISMA guidelines were followed.
Results 1585 unique publications were identified, of which 587 full texts were screened and 149 were included. A further 189 citations were included from reference lists of editorials and reviews, resulting in 338 total publications. Commonly reported symptoms and complications included dyspnoea, cough, wheezing, sputum production, haemoptysis and exacerbations. Disease severity across several indices and increased mortality compared with the general population was reported. Bronchiectasis impacted quality of life across several patient-reported outcomes, with patients experiencing fatigue, anxiety and depression. Healthcare resource utilisation was considerable and substantial medical costs related to hospitalisations, treatments and emergency department and outpatient visits were accrued. Indirect costs included sick pay and lost income.
Conclusions Bronchiectasis causes significant clinical and socioeconomic burden. Disease-modifying therapies that reduce symptoms, improve quality of life and reduce both healthcare resource utilisation and overall costs are needed. Further systematic analyses of specific aetiologies and paediatric disease may provide more insight into unmet therapeutic needs.
Bronchiectasis imposes a significant clinical and socioeconomic burden on patients, their families and employers, and on healthcare systems. Therapies that reduce symptoms, improve quality of life and reduce resource use and overall costs are needed. https://bit.ly/4bPCHlp
Bronchiectasis is a heterogeneous chronic respiratory disease clinically characterised by chronic cough, excessive sputum production and recurrent pulmonary exacerbations [ 1 ], and radiologically characterised by the abnormal widening of the bronchi [ 2 ]. Bronchiectasis is associated with several genetic, autoimmune, airway and infectious disorders [ 3 ]. Regardless of the underlying cause, the defining features of bronchiectasis are chronic airway inflammation and infection, regionally impaired mucociliary clearance, mucus hypersecretion and mucus obstruction, as well as progressive structural lung damage [ 4 , 5 ]. These features perpetuate one another in a “vicious vortex” leading to a decline in lung function, pulmonary exacerbations and associated morbidity, mortality and worsened quality of life [ 4 , 5 ]. Bronchiectasis can be further categorised into several infective and inflammatory endotypes and is associated with multiple comorbidities and underlying aetiologies [ 6 ].
Bronchiectasis has been described as an emerging global epidemic [ 7 ], with prevalence and incidence rates increasing worldwide [ 8 – 12 ]. The prevalence of bronchiectasis, as well as of the individual aetiologies, varies widely across geographic regions [ 13 ]. In Europe, the reported prevalence ranges from 39.1 (females) and 33.3 (males) cases per 100 000 inhabitants in Spain and 68 (females) and 65 (males) cases per 100 000 inhabitants in Germany, to as high as 566 cases (females) and 486 cases (males) per 100 000 inhabitants in the UK [ 10 – 12 ]. In the US, the average overall prevalence was reported to be 139 cases per 100 000 [ 14 ], in Israel, the prevalence was reported to be 234 cases per 100 000 [ 15 ], and in China the prevalence was reported to be 174 per 100 000 [ 8 ]. Studies show that bronchiectasis prevalence increases with age [ 14 ]. This may increase the socioeconomic impact of bronchiectasis on countries with disproportionately higher number of older citizens. Large registry studies in patients with bronchiectasis have been published from the US (Bronchiectasis Research Registry) [ 16 ], Europe and Israel (European Multicentre Bronchiectasis Audit and Research Collaboration (EMBARC)); the largest and most comprehensive report available to date) [ 17 ], India (EMBARC-India) [ 18 , 19 ], Korea (Korean Multicentre Bronchiectasis Audit and Research Collaboration) [ 20 ] and Australia (Australian Bronchiectasis Registry) [ 21 ].
Although there are currently no approved disease-modifying therapies for bronchiectasis [ 4 ], comprehensive clinical care recommendations for the management of patients with bronchiectasis have been published [ 22 , 23 ]. However, the burden that bronchiectasis imposes on patients and their families, as well as on healthcare systems, payers and employers, remains poorly understood. No review to date has used a systematic method to evaluate the overall disease burden of bronchiectasis. This is the first systematic literature review aimed at investigating and synthesising the clinical and socioeconomic burden of bronchiectasis. A better understanding of the overarching burden of bronchiectasis, both overall and by individual aetiologies and associated diseases, will highlight the need for new therapies and assist healthcare systems in planning care and required resources.
The protocol of this systematic review was registered on PROSPERO (reference number: CRD42023404162).
This systematic literature review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines [ 24 ]. Embase, MEDLINE and the Cochrane Library were searched for studies related to the clinical and socioeconomic burden of bronchiectasis (noncystic fibrosis bronchiectasis (NCFBE) and cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis (CFBE)) using the search terms available in supplementary table S1 . Articles written in English and published over a 5-year period (December 2017–December 2022) were included.
The following article types reporting on prospective and retrospective observational studies, registry studies and randomised controlled trials (only baseline data extracted) were included: journal articles, preprints, research letters, conference proceedings, conference papers, conference abstracts, meeting abstracts and meeting posters. Reviews, literature reviews, systematic reviews and meta-analyses, as well as editorials, commentaries, letters and letters to the editor, were included for the purpose of identifying primary studies. A manual search of references cited in selected articles was performed and references were only included if they were published within the 5 years prior to the primary article being published.
A reviewer screened all titles and abstracts to identify publications for full-text review. These publications then underwent full-text screening by the same reviewer for potential inclusion. A second reviewer independently verified the results of both the title/abstract screen and the full-text screen. Any discrepancies were resolved by a third independent reviewer. Data relating to aetiology, symptoms, disease severity, exacerbations, lung function, infection, comorbidities, patient-reported outcomes (PROs), exercise capacity, mortality, impact on family and caregivers, healthcare resource utilisation (HCRU), treatment burden, medical costs, and indirect impacts and costs, as well as data relating to the patient population, study design, sample size and country/countries of origin, were extracted from the final set of publications into a standardised Excel spreadsheet by one reviewer. Studies were grouped based on the burden measure, and aggregate data (range of reported values) were summarised in table or figure format. For the economic burden section, costs extracted from studies reporting in currencies other than the euros were converted to euros based on the average exchange rate for the year in which the study was conducted.
Data from patients with specific bronchiectasis aetiologies and in children (age limits varied from study to study and included upper age limits of 15, 18, 19 and 20 years) were reported separately, where available. As literature relating to NCFBE and CFBE is generally distinct, any data related to CFBE are reported separately in the tables and text. We conducted subanalyses of key disease burden indicators, in which we extracted data from multicentre studies or those with a sample size >1000 subjects, to try to identify estimates from the most representative datasets. These data from larger and multicentre studies are reported in square brackets in tables 1 – 3 and supplementary tables S2–S7 , where available.
Prevalence and severity of bronchiectasis symptoms overall, in children, during exacerbations and in individual bronchiectasis aetiologies
Patient-reported outcome scores in patients with bronchiectasis overall and in individual bronchiectasis aetiologies
Healthcare resource utilisation (HCRU) in patients with bronchiectasis overall and in individual bronchiectasis aetiologies
Given the nature of the data included in this systematic literature review (that is, a broad range of patient clinical and socioeconomic characteristics rather than the outcome(s) of an intervention), in addition to the broad range of study types included, meta-analyses to statistically combine data of similar studies were not deemed appropriate and therefore not performed.
A total of 1834 citations were retrieved from the Embase, MEDLINE and Cochrane Library databases, of which 1585 unique citations were identified. Abstract/title screening led to the inclusion of 587 citations for full-text screening. Following full-text screening, 149 primary citations and 110 literature reviews, systematic reviews and meta-analyses as well as editorials and letters to the editor remained. From the reference lists of these 110 citations, a further 189 primary citations were identified. These articles were only included if 1) the primary articles contained data relating to the burden of bronchiectasis and 2) the primary articles were published within the 5 years prior to the original article's publication date. In total, 338 publications were considered eligible and included in this review ( supplementary figure S1 ). This included 279 journal articles, 46 congress abstracts and 13 letters to the editor or scientific/research letters. The results are summarised in the sections below. For the results from individual studies, including a description of the patient population, study design, sample size and country/countries of origin, please see the supplemental Excel file .
The most frequently reported aetiologies included post-infectious, genetic (primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD), alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD) and cystic fibrosis (CF)), airway diseases (COPD and asthma), allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA), aspiration and reflux-related, immunodeficiency and autoimmune aetiologies ( supplementary figure S2 ). However, in up to 80.7% of adult cases and 53.3% of paediatric cases, the aetiology was not determined (referred to as “idiopathic bronchiectasis”) ( supplementary figure S2 ). When limited to larger or multicentre studies, the frequency of idiopathic bronchiectasis ranged from 11.5 to 66.0% in adults and from 16.5 to 29.4% in children. Further details and additional aetiologies can be seen in the supplemental Excel file .
Symptom burden and severity.
Commonly reported symptoms in patients with bronchiectasis included cough, sputum production, dyspnoea, wheezing and haemoptysis, with these symptoms more prevalent in adults compared with children ( table 1 ). Other reported symptoms included chest discomfort, pain or tightness (both generally and during an exacerbation), fever and weight loss in both adults and children, and fatigue, tiredness or asthenia, appetite loss, and sweating in adults. In children, respiratory distress, hypoxia during an exacerbation, sneezing, nasal and ear discharge, thriving poorly including poor growth and weight loss, exercise intolerance, malaise, night sweats, abdominal pain, recurrent vomiting, and diarrhoea were reported ( supplemental Excel file ). Classic bronchiectasis symptoms such as sputum production (range of patients reporting sputum production across all studies: 22.0–92.7%) and cough (range of patients reporting cough across all studies: 24.0–98.5%) were not universally reported ( table 1 ).
In a study comparing bronchiectasis (excluding CFBE) in different age groups (younger adults (18–65 years), older adults (66–75 years) and elderly adults (≥76 years) [ 63 ]), no significant differences across age groups were reported for the presence of cough (younger adults: 73.9%; older adults: 72.8%; elderly adults: 72.9%; p=0.90), sputum production (younger adults: 57.8%; older adults: 63.8%; elderly adults: 6.0%; p=0.16) or haemoptysis (younger adults: 16.5%; older adults: 19.3%; elderly adults: 16.3%; p=0.47).
Disease severity was reported according to several measures including the bronchiectasis severity index (BSI), the forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV 1 ), Age, Chronic Colonisation, Extension, Dyspnoea (FACED) score and the Exacerbations-FACED (E-FACED) score, all of which are known to be associated with future exacerbations, hospitalisations and mortality ( supplementary table S2 and the supplemental Excel file ). Up to 78.7, 41.8 and 40.8% of patients with bronchiectasis reported severe disease according to the BSI, FACED score and E-FACED score, respectively ( supplementary table S2 ). In most studies, severity scores were greater among people with bronchiectasis secondary to COPD or post-tuberculosis (TB) than idiopathic bronchiectasis ( supplementary table S2 ). No data relating to disease severity were reported for CFBE specifically.
The number of exacerbations experienced by patients with bronchiectasis in the previous year, per year and during follow-up are presented in figure 1 . For further details, please see the supplemental Excel file . Two studies reported exacerbation length in patients with bronchiectasis; this ranged from 11 to 16 days (both small studies; sample sizes of 191 and 32, respectively) [ 25 , 64 ]. A study in children with NCFBE reported a median of one exacerbation in the previous year. Additionally, the same study reported that 31.1% of children with bronchiectasis experienced ≥3 exacerbations per year [ 65 ].
Range of bronchiectasis exacerbations in the previous year, per year and in the first and second years of follow-up. # : Two studies reported significant differences in the number of exacerbations experienced in the previous year across individual aetiologies. Study 1 [ 90 ]: Patients with idiopathic bronchiectasis had significantly fewer exacerbations in the previous year compared with other aetiologies (primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD), COPD and post-infectious) (p<0.021). Study 2 [ 33 ]: significant difference between post-tuberculosis (TB) bronchiectasis (mean: 2.8) and other aetiologies excluding idiopathic bronchiectasis (mean: 1.7) (p<0.05).
Reduced lung function was reported across several different measures in adults and children with bronchiectasis overall, including FEV 1 (absolute values and % predicted), forced vital capacity (FVC; absolute values and % pred) and lung clearance index (adults only) ( supplementary table S3 and the supplemental Excel file ). In most studies, lung function was lowest among people with post-TB bronchiectasis and bronchiectasis secondary to COPD or PCD ( supplementary table S2 ). Additional measures of lung function are detailed in the supplemental Excel file . Lung clearance index, considered more sensitive than spirometry to early airway damage, was elevated in two studies in adults with bronchiectasis, with a range of 9.0–12.8 (normal: 6–7 or less) [ 66 , 67 ].
In a study comparing bronchiectasis (people with CFBE excluded) in different age groups, elderly adults (≥76 years) had significantly lower FEV 1 % pred (median: 67) compared with both younger (18–65 years; median: 78) and older adults (66–75 years; median: 75) (p<0.017 for both comparisons) [ 63 ]. FVC % pred was found to be significantly lower in elderly adults (mean: 65) compared with both younger adults (median: 78) and older adults (median: 75) (p<0.017 for both comparisons) [ 63 ].
Chronic infection with at least one pathogen was reported in 22.3–79.6% of patients with bronchiectasis, although each study defined chronic infection differently (number of studies: 20). When limited to larger or multicentre studies, chronic infection with at least one pathogen was reported in 10.7–54.5% of patients with bronchiectasis (number of studies: 12). In two studies in NCFBE, significant differences in the proportion of patients chronically infected with at least one pathogen were reported across aetiologies (p<0.001 for both studies) [ 68 , 69 ]. Patients with post-infectious (other than TB) bronchiectasis (34.9%) [ 68 ] and patients with PCD-related bronchiectasis (68.3%) [ 69 ] had the highest prevalence of chronic infection.
The most commonly reported bacterial and fungal pathogens are shown in supplementary table S4 . The two most common bacterial pathogens were Pseudomonas ( P .) aeruginosa and Haemophilus ( H. ) influenzae . In several studies, more patients with PCD, TB and COPD as the aetiology of their bronchiectasis reported infection with P. aeruginosa . Additionally, in one study, significantly more children with CFBE had P. aeruginosa infection compared with children with NCFBE [ 70 ]. Further details and additional pathogens are reported in the supplemental Excel file .
Diversity of the sputum microbiome was assessed in two studies. In the first study in people with bronchiectasis (people with CFBE excluded), reduced microbiome alpha diversity (defined as the relative abundance of microbial species within a sample), particularly associated with Pseudomonas or Proteobacteria dominance, was associated with greater disease severity, increased frequency and severity of exacerbations, and a higher risk of mortality [ 71 ]. In the second study (unknown whether people with CFBE were excluded), a lower Shannon–Wiener diversity index (a measure of species diversity, with lower scores indicating lower diversity) score was associated with multiple markers of disease severity, including a higher BSI score (p=0.0003) and more frequent exacerbations (p=0.008) [ 72 ].
In a study comparing bronchiectasis (people with CFBE excluded) in different age groups (younger adults: 18–65 years; older adults: 66–75 years; elderly adults: ≥76 years) [ 63 ], chronic infection with H. influenzae was reported in 18.3% of younger adults, 12.8% of older adults and 8.8% of elderly adults, and chronic infection with Streptococcus ( Str. ) pneumoniae was reported in 5.3% of younger adults, 2.8% of older adults and 1.3% of elderly adults. For both of the above, the prevalence was significantly higher in younger adults compared with elderly adults (p<0.017 for both comparisons). However, no significant differences across age groups were reported for P. aeruginosa , Moraxella catarrhalis or Staphylococcus ( Sta .) aureus chronic infection.
P. aeruginosa infection was significantly associated with reduced FEV 1 [ 73 ], more severe disease [ 74 ], more frequent exacerbations [ 35 , 49 , 75 , 76 ], increased hospital admissions, reduced quality of life based on St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) and increased and 4-year mortality [ 49 , 76 ]. Additionally, in a study reporting healthcare use and costs in the US between 2007–2013, healthcare costs and hospitalisation costs were found to be increased in patients infected with P. aeruginosa ($56 499 and $41 972 more than patients not infected with P. aeruginosa , respectively) [ 77 ]. In the same study, HCRU was also higher in patients infected with P. aeruginosa (fivefold increase in the number of hospitalisations and 84% more emergency department (ED) visits compared with patients not infected with P. aeruginosa ) [ 77 ].
The most frequently reported comorbidities included cardiovascular (including heart failure, cerebrovascular disease and hypertension), respiratory (including asthma, COPD and sinusitis), metabolic (including diabetes and dyslipidaemia), malignancy (including haematological and solid malignancies), bone and joint-related (including osteoporosis and rheumatological disease), neurological (including anxiety and depression), renal, hepatic, and gastrointestinal comorbidities ( supplementary table S5 ). No data relating to comorbidities were reported for CFBE specifically. For further details and additional comorbidities, please see the supplemental Excel file .
In a study comparing bronchiectasis (people with CFBE excluded) in different age groups (younger adults: 18–65 years; older adults: 66–75 years; elderly adults: ≥76 years), younger adults had a significantly lower prevalence of diabetes compared with older adults, a significantly lower prevalence of stroke compared with elderly adults and a significantly lower prevalence of heart failure, solid tumours and renal failure compared with both older and elderly adults (p<0.0017 for all comparisons). Additionally, the prevalence of COPD was significantly lower in both younger and older adults compared with elderly adults (p<0.017) [ 63 ]. In studies reporting in children with bronchiectasis, the prevalence of comorbid asthma ranged from 22.2 to 25.8% [ 65 , 78 ] and the prevalence of sinusitis was reported to be 12.7% in a single study [ 79 ].
CCI scores can range from 0 to 37, with higher scores indicating a decreased estimate of 10-year survival. In this review, CCI scores ranged from 0.7 to 6.6 in studies reporting means (number of studies: 7). In one study, adults with bronchiectasis (people with CFBE excluded) who experienced ≥2 exacerbations per year were found to have significantly higher CCI scores (3.3) compared with patients who experienced less than two exacerbations per year (2.2) (p=0.001) [ 35 ]. In another study in adults with bronchiectasis (people with CFBE excluded), CCI scores increased significantly with increasing disease severity, with patients with mild (FACED score of 0–2), moderate (FACED score of 3–4) and severe (FACED score of 5–7) bronchiectasis reporting mean CCI scores of 3.9, 5.7 and 6.3, respectively [ 80 ]. No CCI scores were reported for CFBE specifically.
Several studies reported a higher prevalence of cardiovascular comorbidities. such as heart failure [ 81 ], stroke [ 82 , 83 ] and hypertension [ 82 – 84 ] in patients with bronchiectasis compared with a matched general population or healthy controls. Conversely, several additional studies reported no significant differences [ 81 , 85 , 86 ]. Two large studies reported an increased prevalence of diabetes in patients with bronchiectasis compared with nonbronchiectasis control groups [ 83 , 84 ]; however, three additional smaller studies reported no significant differences [ 81 , 82 , 86 ]. The prevalence of gastro–oesophageal reflux disease was found to be significantly higher in patients with bronchiectasis compared with matched nonbronchiectasis controls in one study [ 87 ], but no significant difference was reported in a second study [ 85 ]. Both anxiety and depression were found to be significantly more prevalent in patients with bronchiectasis compared with matched healthy controls in one study [ 55 ]. Lastly, two large studies reported an increased prevalence of asthma [ 84 , 87 ] and five studies reported a significantly higher prevalence of COPD [ 81 , 82 , 84 , 85 , 87 ] in patients with bronchiectasis compared with matched nonbronchiectasis controls or the general population. A smaller study reported conflicting evidence whereby no significant difference in the prevalence of asthma in patients with bronchiectasis compared with matched controls was reported [ 85 ].
Patient-reported outcomes.
Health-related quality of life (HRQoL), fatigue, anxiety and depression were reported across several PRO measures and domains. The most frequently reported PROs are discussed in further detail in the sections below ( table 2 ). Further details and additional PROs can be seen in the supplemental Excel file .
In a study comparing bronchiectasis (people with CFBE excluded) in different age groups (younger adults: 18–65 years; older adults: 66–75 years; elderly adults: ≥76 years), the median SGRQ total score was significantly higher in elderly adults (50.8) compared with younger adults (36.1), indicating a higher degree of limitation (p=0.017) [ 63 ].
In a study that reported Leicester Cough Questionnaire (LCQ) scores in men and women with bronchiectasis (people with CFBE excluded) separately, women had significantly lower LCQ total scores (14.9) when compared with men (17.5) (p=0.006), indicating worse quality of life [ 88 ]. Additionally, women had significantly lower scores across all three LCQ domains (p=0.014, p=0.005 and p=0.011 for physical, psychological and social domains, respectively) [ 88 ].
Exercise capacity in patients with bronchiectasis was reported using walking tests namely the 6-minute walk test (6MWT) and the incremental shuttle walk test (ISWT) ( supplementary table S6 ). The 6MWT data from patients with bronchiectasis generally fell within the normal range for healthy people; however, the ISWT data was below the normal range for healthy people ( supplementary table S6 ). Studies also reported on daily physical activity, daily sedentary time and number of steps per day in patients with bronchiectasis, and in children specifically ( supplementary table S6 ). No data relating to disease severity were reported for CFBE specifically. Further details can be seen in the supplemental Excel file .
In one study, the ISWT distance was reported to be significantly lower in patients with NCFBE compared with healthy controls (592.6 m versus 882.9 m; difference of ∼290 m; p<0.001) [ 89 ]. Additionally, patients with bronchiectasis spent significantly less time on activities of moderate and vigorous intensity compared with healthy controls (p=0.030 and 0.044, respectively) [ 89 ]. Lastly, a study reported that patients with NCFBE had a significantly lower step count per day compared with healthy controls (p<0.001) [ 89 ].
Mortality ranged from 0.24 to 67.6%; however, it should be noted that the study duration differed across studies. When limited to larger or multicentre studies, the mortality rate ranged from 0.24 to 28.1%. One study reported more deaths in patients with NCFBE (9.1%; 5.9-year mean follow-up period) compared with patients without bronchiectasis (0.8%; 5.4-year mean follow-up period) [ 84 ]. In one study, significantly more patients with COPD-related bronchiectasis died (37.5%) compared with other aetiologies (19.0%) (3.4-year mean follow-up period; p<0.001). After adjusting for several factors, multivariate analysis showed that the diagnosis of COPD as the primary cause of bronchiectasis increased the risk of death by 1.77 compared with the patients with other aetiologies [ 41 ]. Similarly, in another study, COPD-associated bronchiectasis was associated with higher mortality (55%) in multivariate analysis as compared with other aetiologies (rheumatic disease: 20%; post-infectious: 16%; idiopathic: 14%; ABPA: 13%; immunodeficiency: 11%) (hazard ratio 2.12, 95% CI 1.04–4.30; p=0.038; 5.2-year median follow-up period) [ 90 ].
The 1-, 2-, 3-, 4- and 5-year mortality rates in patients with bronchiectasis (people with CFBE excluded, unless unspecified) ranged from 0.0 to 12.3%, 0.0 to 13.0%, 0.0 to 21.0%, 5.5 to 39.1% and 12.4 to 53.0%, respectively (number of studies: 9, 4, 7, 1 and 4, respectively). When limited to larger or multicentre studies, the 1-, 2-, 3- and 5-year mortality rates ranges were 0.4–7.9%, 3.9–13.0%, 3.7–21.0% and 12.4–53.0% (no 4-year mortality data from larger or multicentre studies). No data relating to mortality rates were reported for CFBE specifically.
Two studies reported mortality rate by bronchiectasis aetiology (people with CFBE excluded). In the first study, no significant difference in the 4-year mortality rate was reported across aetiologies (p=0.7; inflammatory bowel disease: 14.3%; post-TB: 13.4%; rheumatoid arthritis: 11.4%; idiopathic or post-infectious: 10.1%; ABPA: 6.1%; other aetiologies: 6.1%) [ 49 ]. In the second study, patients with post-TB bronchiectasis had a significantly higher 5-year mortality rate (30.0%) compared with patients with idiopathic bronchiectasis (18.0%) and other aetiologies (10.0%) (p<0.05 for both comparisons) [ 32 ].
In-hospital mortality ranged from 2.9 to 59.3% in patients with bronchiectasis (people with CFBE excluded, unless unspecified) hospitalised for an exacerbation or for other reasons (number of studies: 7). When limited to larger or multicentre studies, in-hospital mortality rate was reported in only one study (33.0%). One study reported mortality in bronchiectasis patients admitted to a tertiary care centre according to aetiology; in-hospital mortality was highest in patients with post-pneumonia bronchiectasis (15.8%), followed by patients with idiopathic (7.1%) and post-TB (2.6%) bronchiectasis. No deaths were reported in patients with COPD, ABPA or PCD aetiologies [ 42 ]. Intensive care unit mortality was reported in two studies and ranged from 24.6 to 36.1% [ 62 , 91 ]. No data relating to mortality rates were reported for CFBE specifically.
Only two studies discussed the impact that having a child with bronchiectasis has on parents/caregivers. In the first study, parents of children with bronchiectasis (not specified whether children with CFBE were excluded) were more anxious and more depressed according to both the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Centre of Epidemiological Studies depression scale, compared with parents of children without any respiratory conditions (both p<0.001; sample size of 29 participants) [ 53 ]. In the second study, parents or carers of children with bronchiectasis (multicentre study with a sample size of 141 participants; children with CFBE excluded) were asked to vote for their top five greatest concerns or worries; the most common worries or concerns that were voted for by over 15% of parents were “impact on his/her adult life in the future, long-term effects, normal life” (29.8%), “ongoing declining health” (25.5%), “the cough” (24.8%), “impact on his/her life now as a child (play, development)” (24.1%), “lack of sleep/being tired” (24.1%), “concerns over aspects of antibiotic use” (22.7%), “missing school or daycare” (17.7%) and “breathing difficulties/shortness of breath” (16.3%) [ 92 ].
HCRU in terms of hospitalisations, ED visits, outpatient visits and length of stay overall and by bronchiectasis aetiology are reported in table 3 . No data relating to HCRU were reported for CFBE specifically.
In a study in children with bronchiectasis (children with CFBE excluded), 30.0% of children were hospitalised at least once in the previous year [ 65 ]. The median number of hospitalisations per year was 0 (interquartile range: 0–1) [ 65 ]. In another study, the mean length of hospital stay for children with bronchiectasis was 6.7 days (standard deviation: 4.8 days) [ 93 ]. In a study comparing bronchiectasis (people with CFBE excluded) in different age groups, significantly more elderly adults (≥76 years; 26.0%) were hospitalised at least once during the first year of follow-up compared with younger adults (18–65 years; 17.0%) and older adults (66–75 years; 17.0%) (p<0.017 for both comparisons) [ 63 ]. Additionally, length of stay was found to be significantly longer in male patients (mean: 17.6 days) compared with female patients (mean: 12.5 days) (p=0.03) [ 94 ].
Length of stay was found to be 38% higher in patients with bronchiectasis (mean: 15.4 days; people with CFBE excluded) compared with patients with any other respiratory illness (mean: 9.6 days) (p<0.001) [ 94 ]. In a study reporting on HCRU in patients with bronchiectasis (people with CFBE excluded) over a 3-year period (Germany; 2012–2015) [ 85 ], a mean of 24.7 outpatient appointments per patient were reported; there was no significant difference in the number of outpatient appointments between patients with bronchiectasis and matched controls (patients without bronchiectasis matched by age, sex and distribution, and level of comorbidities) (mean: 23.4) (p=0.12). When assessing specific outpatient appointments over the 3-year period, patients with bronchiectasis attended a mean of 9.2 general practitioner appointments, 2.9 radiology appointments, 2.5 chest physician appointments and 0.8 cardiologist appointments. Patients with bronchiectasis had significantly fewer general practitioner appointments compared with matched controls (mean: 9.8) (p=0.002); however, they had significantly more radiology appointments (mean for matched controls: 2.3) and chest physician appointments (mean for matched controls: 1.4) compared with matched controls (p<0.001 for both comparisons).
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the crude hospital admission rate in 2013 was 88.4 (95% CI 74.0–105.6) per 100 000 person-years [ 91 ]. In New Zealand (2008–2013), the crude and adjusted hospital admission rates were 25.7 and 20.4 per 100 000 population, respectively [ 95 ]. Lastly, in Australia and New Zealand (2004–2008) the hospital admission rate ranged from 0.7 to 2.9 per person-year [ 96 ]. In all of the abovementioned studies, people with CFBE were excluded.
In two studies, the percentage of patients with bronchiectasis receiving any respiratory medication at baseline ranged from 60.8 to 85.7% [ 97 , 98 ]. Additionally, in a study comparing healthcare costs in patients with bronchiectasis before and after confirmation of P. aeruginosa infection, mean pharmacy visits in the year preceding diagnosis were reported to be 23.2; this increased significantly by 56.5% to 36.2 in the year post-diagnosis (p<0.0001) [ 99 ]. In another study, patients with bronchiectasis were prescribed a mean of 12 medications for bronchiectasis and other comorbidities [ 100 ]. In all of the abovementioned studies, people with CFBE were excluded. The most frequently reported respiratory treatments can be seen in supplementary table S7 . These included antibiotics (including macrolides), corticosteroids, bronchodilators, mucolytics and oxygen. No treatment data were reported for CFBE specifically. Other respiratory treatments included saline, anticholinergics and leukotriene receptor antagonists ( supplemental Excel file ).
In studies reporting in children with bronchiectasis, 23.9% of children were receiving any bronchodilator at baseline [ 101 ], 9.0–21.7% of children were receiving inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) at baseline [ 101 , 102 ], 4.3% of children were receiving oral corticosteroids at baseline [ 101 ] and 12.1% of children were receiving long-term oxygen therapy [ 103 ].
Medical costs for bronchiectasis included overall costs, hospitalisation costs, ED visits and outpatient visit costs and costs of treatment; indirect impacts and costs included sick leave and sick pay, missed work and income loss for caregivers, and missed school or childcare for children ( table 4 and the supplemental Excel file ). People with CFBE were excluded from all of the studies in table 4 below. In studies reporting in currencies other than the €, costs were converted to € based on the average exchange rate for the year in which the study was conducted.
Bronchiectasis-related medical costs and indirect impacts and costs (individual studies)
No review to date has systematically evaluated the overall disease burden of bronchiectasis. Here, we present the first systematic literature review that comprehensively describes the clinical and socioeconomic burden of bronchiectasis overall and across individual aetiologies and associated diseases. A total of 338 publications were included in the final analysis. Together, the results indicate that the burden of clinically significant bronchiectasis on patients and their families, as well as on healthcare systems, is substantial, highlighting the urgent need for new disease-modifying therapies for bronchiectasis.
Bronchiectasis is associated with genetic, autoimmune, airway and infectious disorders. However, in many patients with bronchiectasis, an underlying aetiology cannot be identified (idiopathic bronchiectasis) [ 1 , 3 , 4 ]. This is supported by the results of this systematic literature review, in which up to 80.7% of patients were reported to have idiopathic bronchiectasis. The results are in line with those reported in a systematic literature review of bronchiectasis aetiology conducted by G ao et al. [ 13 ] (studies from Asia, Europe, North and South America, Africa and Oceania included) in which an idiopathic aetiology was reported in approximately 45% of patients with bronchiectasis, with a range of 5–82%. The maximum of 80.7% of patients with idiopathic bronchiectasis identified by this systematic literature review is much higher than in the recent report on the disease characteristics of the EMBARC where idiopathic bronchiectasis was the most common aetiology and reported in only ∼38% of patients with bronchiectasis [ 17 ]. This highlights the importance of sample size and geographic variation (80.7% reported from a single-country study with a small sample size versus ∼38% reported from a continent-wide study with a large sample size). Nevertheless, identifying the underlying aetiology is a recommendation of bronchiectasis guidelines as this can considerably alter the clinical management and prognosis [ 23 , 110 ]. Specific therapeutic interventions may be required for specific aetiologies, such as ICS for people with asthma-related bronchiectasis, antifungal treatment for those with ABPA-associated bronchiectasis and immunoglobulin replacement therapy for those with common variable immunodeficiency-related bronchiectasis [ 23 , 111 ]. Indeed, an observational study has shown that identification of the underlying aetiology affected management in 37% of people with bronchiectasis [ 112 ]. Future studies to determine the impact of identifying the underlying aetiology on management and prognosis are needed to fully understand its importance.
Patients with bronchiectasis experienced a significant symptom burden, with dyspnoea, cough, wheezing, sputum production and haemoptysis reported most commonly. These symptoms were also reported in children with bronchiectasis at slightly lower frequencies. Dealing with bronchiectasis symptoms are some of the greatest concerns from a patient's perspective. In a study assessing the aspects of bronchiectasis that patients found most difficult to deal with, sputum, dyspnoea and cough were the first, fifth and sixth most common answers, respectively [ 113 ]. Some aetiologies were reported to have a higher prevalence of certain symptoms. For example, in single studies, patients with PCD-related bronchiectasis were found to have a significantly higher prevalence of cough and wheezing [ 39 ], patients with COPD-related bronchiectasis were found to have a significantly higher prevalence of sputum production [ 41 ], and patients with post-TB bronchiectasis were found to have a higher prevalence of haemoptysis [ 30 ] compared with other aetiologies. Together, these results highlight the need for novel treatments that reduce the symptom burden of bronchiectasis. They also highlight the importance of teaching patients to perform and adhere to regular nonpharmacological interventions, such as airway clearance using physiotherapy techniques, which have been shown to improve cough-related health status and chronic sputum production [ 110 ]. Future studies assessing when airway clearance techniques should be started, and which ones are the most effective, are a research priority [ 113 ].
The burden of exacerbations in patients with bronchiectasis was high, with patients experiencing three or more exacerbations in the previous year (up to 73.6%), per year (up to 55.6%) or in the first year of follow-up (up to 32.4%). Few studies reported significant differences between aetiologies. Importantly, exacerbations are the second-most concerning aspect of bronchiectasis from the patient's perspective [ 113 ]. Patients with frequent exacerbations have more frequent hospitalisations and increased 5-year mortality [ 114 ] and exacerbations are also associated with poorer quality of life [ 114 , 115 ]. Therefore, prevention of exacerbations is of great importance in the management of bronchiectasis [ 116 ]. The exact cause of exacerbations in bronchiectasis (believed to be multifactorial) is not fully understood due a lack of mechanistic studies [ 116 ]. Future studies into the causes and risk factors for exacerbations [ 113 ] may lead to improvements in their prevention.
Many patients with bronchiectasis, including children, experienced chronic infections with bacterial pathogens such as P. aeruginosa , H. influenzae , Sta. aureus and Str. pneumoniae as well as non-tuberculous mycobacteria. Importantly, P. aeruginosa infection was significantly associated with more severe disease, reduced lung function and quality of life, and increased exacerbations, hospital admission, morality, HCRU and healthcare costs. Due to the clear and consistent association between P. aeruginosa and poor outcomes, patients with chronic P. aeruginosa colonisation should be considered to be at a higher risk of bronchiectasis-related complications [ 110 ]. Additionally, regular sputum microbiology screening should be performed in people with clinically significant bronchiectasis to detect new isolation of P. aeruginosa [ 110 ]; in which case, patients should be offered eradication antibiotic treatment [ 23 ]. Eradication of P. aeruginosa is not only of clinical importance, but also of economic importance due to the associated HCRU and healthcare costs. As such, a better understanding of the key factors leading to P. aeruginosa infection is a priority for future research [ 113 ].
Bronchiectasis markedly impacted HRQoL across several PROs including the SGRQ, Quality of Life–Bronchiectasis score, LCQ, COPD Assessment Test and Bronchiectasis Health Questionnaire. In children with bronchiectasis, significantly lower quality of life (according to the Paediatric Quality of Life Inventory score) compared with age-matched controls was reported [ 53 ]. The majority of studies reporting HRQoL in individual aetiologies and associated diseases either reported in a single aetiology, did not perform any statistical analyses to compare aetiologies, or reported no significant differences across aetiologies. Patients also experienced mild-to-moderate anxiety and depression according to the HADS-Anxiety, HADS-Depression and 9-question Patient Health Questionnaire scores, with very limited data reported in individual aetiologies. When compared with healthy controls, anxiety and depression were found to be significantly more prevalent in patients with bronchiectasis [ 55 ]. Additionally, exercise capacity was reduced, with patients with bronchiectasis reported to spend significantly less time on activities of moderate and vigorous intensity and have a significantly lower step count per day compared with healthy controls [ 89 ]. Improvements in anxiety, depression and exercise capacity are important priorities for people with bronchiectasis; in a study assessing the aspects of bronchiectasis that patients found most difficult to manage, “not feeling fit for daily activities”, anxiety and depression were the fourth, eighth and ninth most common answers, respectively [ 113 ].
The studies relating to HCRU and costs in this review were heterogeneous in terms of methodology, time period, country and currency, making them challenging to compare. Nevertheless, this study found that HCRU was substantial, with patients reporting a maximum of 1.3 hospitalisation, 1.3 ED and 21.0 outpatient visits per year. Length of stay was found to be significantly longer in patients with bronchiectasis compared with patients with any other respiratory illness in one study [ 91 ]. In another study, patients with bronchiectasis reported significantly more specialist appointments (radiologist appointments and chest physician appointments) compared with matched controls [ 85 ]. Patients with bronchiectasis also experienced a significant treatment burden, with up to 36.4, 58.0 and 83.0% of patients receiving long-term inhaled antibiotics, oral antibiotics and macrolides, respectively, up to 80.4% receiving long-term ICS and up to 61.7% and 81.4% receiving long-term long-acting muscarinic antagonists and long-acting beta agonists, respectively. Wide ranges of treatment use were reported in this study, which may reflect geographic variation in treatment patterns. Heterogeneous treatment patterns across Europe were observed in the EMBARC registry data with generally higher medication use in the UK and Northern/Western Europe and lower medication use in Eastern Europe (inhaled antibiotics: 1.8–8.9%; macrolides: 0.9–24.4%; ICS: 37.2–58.5%; long-acting beta agonists: 42.7–52.8%; long-acting muscarinic antagonists: 26.5–29.8%) [ 17 ]. Similarly, data from the Indian bronchiectasis registry indicate that the treatment of bronchiectasis in India is also diverse [ 19 ]. Furthermore, in a comparison of the European and Indian registry data, both long-term oral and inhaled antibiotics were more commonly used in Europe compared with India [ 19 ].
Cost varied widely across studies. However, patients, payers and healthcare systems generally accrued substantial medical costs due to hospitalisations, ED visits, outpatient visits, hospital-in-the-home and treatment-related costs. Other medical costs incurred included physiotherapy and outpatient remedies (including breathing or drainage techniques), outpatient medical aids (including nebulisers and respiration therapy equipment) and the cost of attending convalescence centres. Only one study compared the medical costs in patients with bronchiectasis and matched controls (age, sex and comorbidities) and found that patients with bronchiectasis had significantly higher total direct medical expenditure, hospitalisation costs, treatment costs for certain medications and costs associated with outpatient remedies and medical aids [ 85 ]. Bronchiectasis was also associated with indirect impacts and costs, including sick leave, sick pay and income lost due to absenteeism and missed work, and lost wages for caregivers of patients with bronchiectasis. Children with bronchiectasis also reported absenteeism from school or childcare.
Our findings regarding HRCU and costs in bronchiectasis are mirrored by a recent systematic literature review by R oberts et al . [ 117 ] estimating the annual economic burden of bronchiectasis in adults and children over the 2001–2022 time period. R oberts et al . [ 117 ] found that annual total healthcare costs per adult patient ranged from €3027 to €69 817 (costs were converted from USD to € based on the average exchange rate in 2021), predominantly driven by hospitalisation costs. Likewise, we report annual costs per patient ranging from €218 to €51 033, with annual hospital costs ranging from €1215 to €27 612 (adults and children included) ( table 4 ). Further, R oberts et al . [ 117 ] reports a mean annual hospitalisation rate ranging from 0.11 to 2.9, which is similar to our finding of 0.03–1.3 hospitalisations per year ( table 3 ). With regard to outpatient visits, R oberts et al . [ 117 ] reports a mean annual outpatient respiratory physician attendance ranging from 0.83 to 6.8 visits, whereas we report a maximum of 21 visits per year ( table 3 ). It should be noted, however, that our value is not restricted to visits to a respiratory physician. With regard to indirect annual costs per adult patient, R oberts et al . [ 117 ] reports a loss of income because of illness of €1109–€2451 (costs were converted from USD to € based on the average exchange rate in 2021), whereas we report a figure of ∼€1410 ( table 4 ). Finally, burden on children is similarly reported by us and R oberts et al . [ 117 ], with children missing 12 days of school per year per child ( table 4 ).
Due to the nature of this systematic literature review, no formal statistical analyses or formal risk of bias assessments were performed.
Several limitations within the existing literature were identified. Firstly, the vast majority of studies reported patients with NCFBE overall, with limited availability of literature reporting on individual aetiologies and associated disease. Furthermore, where this literature was available, it was limited to a handful of individual aetiologies and associated diseases, and in many of these studies, no statistical analyses to compare different aetiologies and associated disease were performed. Additionally, the methods used to determine aetiologies within individual studies may have differed. Literature on NCFBE and CFBE has traditionally been very distinct; as such, most of the studies included in this review have excluded people with CF. As the general term “CF lung disease” was not included in our search string in order to limit the number of hits, limited data on CFBE are included in this review. Bronchiectasis remains largely under-recognised and underdiagnosed, thus limiting the availability of literature. There is a particular knowledge gap with respect to paediatric NCFBE; however, initiatives such as the Children's Bronchiectasis Education Advocacy and Research Network (Child-BEAR-Net) ( www.improvebe.org ) are aiming to create multinational registries for paediatric bronchiectasis.
There were variations in the amount of literature available for the individual burdens. While there was more literature available on the clinical burden of bronchiectasis, economic data (related to both medical costs and indirect costs) and data on the impact of bronchiectasis on families and caregivers, were limited. Additionally, cost comparisons across studies and populations were difficult due to differences in cost definitions, currencies and healthcare systems.
Sample sizes of the studies included in this systematic literature review varied greatly, with the majority of studies reporting on a small number of participants. Furthermore, many of the studies were single-centre studies, thus limiting the ability to make generalisations about the larger bronchiectasis population, and cross-sectional, thus limiting the ability to assess the clinical and socioeconomic burden of bronchiectasis over a patient's lifetime. Furthermore, there may be potential sex/gender bias in reporting that has not been considered in this systematic literature review.
Finally, for many of the reported outcomes, data varied greatly across studies, with wide estimates for the frequency of different aetiologies and comorbidities as well as disease characteristics such as exacerbations and healthcare costs noted. This reflects the heterogeneity of both the study designs (including sample size and inclusion and exclusion criteria) and the study populations themselves. Additionally, the use of non-standardised terms across articles posed a limitation for data synthesis. Systematic collection of standardised data across multiple centres, with standardised inclusion and exclusion criteria such as that being applied in international registries, is likely to provide more accurate estimates than those derived from small single-centre studies.
Collectively, the evidence identified and presented in this systematic literature review show that bronchiectasis imposes a significant clinical and socioeconomic burden on patients and their families and employers, as well as on healthcare systems. Disease-modifying therapies that reduce symptoms, improve quality of life, and reduce both HCRU and overall costs are urgently needed. Further systematic analyses of the disease burden of specific bronchiectasis aetiologies and associated disease (particularly PCD-, COPD- and post-TB-associated bronchiectasis, which appear to impose a greater burden in some aspects) and paediatric bronchiectasis (the majority of data included in this study were obtained from adults) may provide more insight into the unmet therapeutic needs for these specific patient populations.
Further research into the clinical and socioeconomic burden of bronchiectasis for individual aetiologies and associated diseases is required.
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Supplementary figures and tables ERR-0049-2024.SUPPLEMENT
Supplementary Excel file ERR-0049-2024.SUPPLEMENT
Laura Cottino, PhD, of Nucleus Global, provided writing, editorial support, and formatting assistance, which was contracted and funded by Boehringer Ingelheim.
Provenance: Submitted article, peer reviewed.
Conflict of interest: The authors meet criteria for authorship as recommended by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). J.D. Chalmers has received research grants from AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, Gilead Sciences, Grifols, Novartis, Insmed and Trudell, and received consultancy or speaker fees from Antabio, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chiesi, GlaxoSmithKline, Insmed, Janssen, Novartis, Pfizer, Trudell and Zambon. M.A. Mall reports research grants paid to their institution from the German Research Foundation (DFG), German Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF), German Innovation Fund, Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Boehringer Ingelheim; consultancy fees from AbbVie, Antabio, Arrowhead, Boehringer Ingelheim, Enterprise Therapeutics, Kither Biotec, Prieris, Recode, Santhera, Splisense and Vertex Pharmaceuticals; speaker fees from Vertex Pharmaceuticals; and travel support from Boehringer Ingelheim and Vertex Pharmaceuticals. M.A. Mall also reports advisory board participation for AbbVie, Antabio, Arrowhead, Boehringer Ingelheim, Enterprise Therapeutics, Kither Biotec, Pari and Vertex Pharmaceuticals and is a fellow of ERS (unpaid). P.J. McShane is an advisory board member for Boehringer Ingelheim's Airleaf trial and Insmed's Aspen trial. P.J. McShane is also a principal investigator for clinical trials with the following pharmaceutical companies: Insmed: Aspen, 416; Boehringer Ingelheim: Airleaf; Paratek: oral omadacycline; AN2 Therapeutics: epetraborole; Renovian: ARINA-1; Redhill; Spero; and Armata. K.G. Nielsen reports advisory board membership for Boehringer Ingelheim. M. Shteinberg reports having received research grants from Novartis, Trudell Pharma and GlaxoSmithKline; travel grants from Novartis, Actelion, Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline and Rafa; speaker fees from AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, Insmed, Teva, Novartis, Kamada and Sanofi; and advisory fees (including steering committee membership) from GlaxoSmithKline, Boehringer Ingelheim, Kamada, Syncrony Medical, Zambon and Vertex Pharmaceuticals. M. Shteinberg also reports data and safety monitoring board participation for Bonus Therapeutics, Israel and is an ERS Task Force member on bronchiectasis guideline development. S.D. Sullivan has participated in advisory boards for Boehringer Ingelheim and has research grants from Pfizer, Bayer and GlaxoSmithKline. S.H. Chotirmall is on advisory boards for CSL Behring, Boehringer Ingelheim and Pneumagen Ltd, served on a data and safety monitoring board for Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc., and has received personal fees from AstraZeneca and Chiesi Farmaceutici.
Support statement: This systematic literature review was funded by Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH. The authors did not receive payment related to the development of the manuscript. Boehringer Ingelheim was given the opportunity to review the manuscript for medical and scientific accuracy as well as intellectual property considerations. Funding information for this article has been deposited with the Crossref Funder Registry .
This version is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence 4.0.
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International Journal of STEM Education volume 11 , Article number: 43 ( 2024 ) Cite this article
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This study aimed to analyze articles published in the Web of Science database from 2012 to 2021 to examine the educational goals and instructional designs for STEM education. We selected articles based on the following criteria: (a) empirical research; (b) incorporating instructional design and strategies into STEM teaching; (c) including intervention; (d) focusing on K-12 education and on assessment of learning outcomes; and (e) excluding higher education and STEAM education. Based on the criteria, 229 articles were selected for coding educational goals and instructional designs for STEM education. The aspects of STEM educational goals were coded including engagement and career choice, STEM literacy, and twenty-first century competencies. The categories of instructional designs for STEM education were examined including design-based learning, inquiry-based learning, project-based learning, and problem-based learning. The results showed that engagement and career choices and STEM literacy were mainly emphasized in STEM education. Design-based learning was adopted more than inquiry-based, project-based, or problem-based learning, and this instructional design was mainly used to achieve STEM literacy. It is suggested that studies on twenty-first century competencies may require more research efforts in future STEM education research.
Emphasizing STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) has been the main focus of policy makers in many countries (English, 2016 ; National Academy of Engineering & National Research Council, 2014 ; National Research Council, 2012 , 2013 ) to meet economic challenges (Kelley & Knowles, 2016 ). Educational systems are accordingly prioritizing STEM to prepare students’ capability for the workplace to face the sophisticated technologies and competitive economy (Kayan-Fadlelmula et al., 2022 ). Hence, students are expected to be interested in STEM so that they will engage in and pursue careers in STEM-related fields (Lie et al., 2019 ; Struyf et al., 2019 ). Besides, we need a new generation that has the abilities to develop proficient knowledge, to apply such knowledge to solve problems, and to face existing and upcoming issues of the twenty-first century (Bybee, 2010 ).
Although STEM education has been proved to benefit students, there is a lack of understanding of instructional design for STEM education, despite the fact that such understanding is critical to research and to classroom practices. Limited understanding of relevant instructional design may lead to problems in implementing STEM education in the classroom. There is hence a need to examine educational goals, specific designs, and features of the instructional designs consistently and specifically documented in the STEM education literature. Therefore, this current study conducted systematic analysis of the literature to understand the educational goals and instructional designs for STEM education. Based on the analysis, we present a thorough picture of how researchers have developed instructional designs for STEM education.
Despite the fact that many researchers have promoted STEM education, the definition of STEM education has not reached a consensus in the literature, and there is a certain degree of disagreement in the scientific community. Lamb et al. ( 2015 ) defined STEM as a broad area encompassing many disciplines and epistemological practices. Other researchers, such as Breiner et al. ( 2012 ), defined STEM as applying transdisciplinary knowledge and skills in solving real-world problems. A similar definition established by Shaughnessy ( 2013 ) regarding STEM education is problem solving based on science and mathematics concepts that incorporate engineering strategies and technology. Another study defined STEM education as teaching approaches based on technology and engineering design that integrate the concepts and practices of science and mathematics (Sanders & Wells, 2006 ). In this study, we clarify STEM education as an approach that utilizes integrations of knowledge and skills from science, technology, engineering, and/or mathematics to solve real-world problems that help students to succeed in school learning, future careers, and/or society.
The definition of STEM as an integrated approach involving science, technology, engineering, and mathematics raises several pertinent questions about its composition and expectations. First, the requirement for all four disciplines to be present in order to qualify an educational program or project as “STEM” is debatable. Conceptually, integrating any two or more fields helps foster the interdisciplinary learning that is the hallmark of STEM education. This flexibility allows educators to tailor their programs to match the available resources and specific learning outcomes without necessarily incorporating all four disciplines in every instance. Regarding the classification of “science” within STEM, it is more a conglomerate of disciplines—such as biology, chemistry, physics, and earth sciences—than a single field. This diversity within science enriches STEM education, providing a broader knowledge base and problem-solving skills. Each scientific discipline brings a unique perspective and set of tools to the interdisciplinary mix, enhancing the complexity and richness of STEM learning experiences.
Furthermore, previous studies have identified several challenges to the implementation of STEM education in the classroom including poor motivation of students, weak connection with individual learners, little support from the school system, poor content without integration across disciplines, lack of quality assessments, poor facilities, and lack of hands-on experience (Ejiwale, 2013 ; Hsu & Fang, 2019 ; Margot & Kettler, 2019 ). To help teachers face challenges in the advancement of STEM education, Hsu and Fang ( 2019 ) proposed a 5-step STEM curriculum designs framework and provided examples of how to apply it to a lesson plan to help teachers design their instruction. This previous study also suggested that researchers conduct more investigations related to instructional design to enrich our understanding of various aspects of STEM education. Teachers of STEM require more opportunities to construct their perspective and a vision of STEM education as well as to conduct appropriate instructional designs. Moreover, from review articles published from 2000 to 2016, Margot and Kettler ( 2019 ) found that in multiple studies concerning similar challenges and supports, teachers believed that the availability of a quality curriculum would enhance the success of STEM education. Teachers need to provide and use an appropriate instructional design for STEM education and understand the educational goals. Therefore, we see the need to conduct research related to STEM education, especially exploring the instructional design because identifying and using a quality instructional design could increase the effectivess of STEM education.
According to the previous literature review, educational goals for instructional design were highlighted in STEM education. First, engagement and career choice need to be emphasized in STEM learning to improve students’ interest and self-efficacy (Vongkulluksn et al., 2018 ). Students need to engage in STEM education to raise their interest and engagement in STEM and to increase and develop a STEM-capable workforce (Honey et al., 2014 ; Hsu & Fang, 2019 ; Schütte & Köller, 2015 ). Engaging students in STEM education could improve their attitudes (Vossen et al., 2018 ) and their interest in STEM fields, and encourage them to pursue STEM careers (Means et al., 2017 ).
Second, STEM literacy needs to be promoted in K-12 schools (Falloon et al., 2020 ; Jackson et al., 2021 ) to develop students’ ability to encounter global challenges (Bybee, 2010 ). Students need to have the ability to apply concepts from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and skills to solve problems related to social, personal, and global issues in society (Bybee, 2010 ; Jackson et al., 2021 ). Besides, improving students’ STEM literacy is needed for their decision-making, participation in civic and cultural affairs, and economic productivity (National Academy of Engineering & National Research Council, 2014 ; National Research Council, 2011 ).
Last, regarding the twenty-first century competencies, students are anticipated to have abilities of creativity and innovation, problem solving, critical thinking, collaboration and communication (Boon, 2019 ) as citizens, workers, and leaders in the twenty-first century (Bryan et al., 2015 ; National Academy of Engineering & National Research Council, 2014 ; Stehle & Peters-Burton, 2019 ). These abilities are critical for students to adapt and thrive in a changing world (National Research Council, 2013 ). Also, students need to have the abilities to adapt to the twenty-first century in order to succeed in the new workforce (Bybee, 2013 ).
Considering the achievement of students’ engagement, motivation, STEM literacy, as well as twenty-first century competencies, many countries have significantly enlarged the funding for research and education relevant to STEM (Sanders, 2009 ). One of the strands of the existing research is to help teachers know how to implement STEM education in schools (Aranda, 2020 ; Barak & Assal, 2018 ; English, 2017 ). Researchers have proposed instructional designs for STEM education including design-based learning (Kelley & Knowles, 2016 ; Yata et al., 2020 ), inquiry-based learning (Bybee, 2010 ), project-based learning (Capraro et al., 2013 ), and problem-based learning (Carpraro & Slough, 2013 ).
Design-based learning focuses on technological and engineering design. This instructional design engages students in learning about engineering design practices (Fan et al., 2021 ; Guzey et al., 2016 ; Hernandez et al., 2014 ) through the steps of designing, building, and testing (Yata et al., 2020 ). Design-based learning promotes problem solving, design, building, testing, and communication skills (Johnson et al., 2015 ) and improves students’ interest in STEM activities (Vongkulluksn et al., 2018 ). Also, design-based learning improves students’ engineering abilities and twenty-first century competencies (Wu et al., 2019 ) and attitudes (Vossen et al., 2018 ), and engages them in understanding core disciplinary ideas (Guzey et al., 2016 ).
Inquiry-based learning focuses on engaging students in hands-on activities to investigate scientific phenomena (Lederman & Lederman, 2012 ) and to construct their new knowledge (Bybee, 2010 ; Halawa et al., 2020 ). Students are encouraged to plan and design their experiments, analyze and interpret data, argue, and communicate their findings (Halawa et al., 2023 ; National Research Council, 2012 , 2013 ). Inquiry-based learning is also deemed to improve students’ knowledge, interest, engagement (Sinatra et al., 2017 ) and creativity (Smyrnaiou et al., 2020 ). Besides, researchers have noticed the importance of inquiry-based learning for improving students’ attitudes toward science-related careers (Kim, 2016 ). Although inquiry-based learning mainly focuses on science education to engage students in authentic learning (Halawa et al., 2024 ), it has been known to share common goals and characteristics with mathematics, technology, and engineering (Grangeat et al., 2021 ; Lin et al., 2020 ). Common elements in STEM education are engaging students in asking questions and testing their ideas in a systematic and interactive way (Grangeat et al., 2021 ).
Project-based learning and problem-based learning, both instructional designs, engage students in experiential and authentic learning with open-ended and real-world problems (English, 2017 ). Yet, project-based learning tends to be of longer duration and occurs over an extended period of time (Wilson, 2021 ), while problem-based learning is usually embedded in multiple problems (Carpraro & Slough, 2013 ). STEM project-based learning focuses on engaging students in an ill-defined task within a well-defined outcome situated with a contextually rich task, requiring them to solve certain problems (Capraro et al., 2013 ). Project-based learning and problem-based learning are both used to develop students’ problem solving, creativity, collaboration skills (Barak & Assal, 2018 ), and attitude (Preininger, 2017 ).
According to previous studies, researchers have adopted STEM instructional designs to achieve certain educational goals. For instance, in the aspects of engagement and career choice, Sullivan and Bers ( 2019 ) used design-based learning to improve students’ interest in engineering and students’ performance in elementary school. Kang et al. ( 2021 ) adopted inquiry-based learning for secondary school by embedding careers education to foster the students’ interest in science. Vallera and Bodzin ( 2020 ) adopted project-based learning at primary school in the northeastern United States to improve students’ STEM literacy and attitude. Preininger ( 2017 ) used problem-based learning to influence students’ attitudes toward mathematics and careers involving mathematics. In the aspect of STEM literacy, King and English ( 2016 ) adopted design-based learning to enable students to apply STEM concepts to the model of the construction of an optical instrument. Han et al. ( 2015 ) adopted STEM project-based learning to improve the performance of low-performing students in mathematics. Lastly, regarding the twenty-first century competencies, English et al. ( 2017 ) adopted design-based learning to improve students’ capabilities of handling the complexity of the task (English et al., 2017 ).
In conclusion, studies have grown to explore educational goals related to instructional designs for STEM education. However, consistent and systematic reviews related to instructional designs in K-12 STEM education are comparatively scarce. Although there are some reviews of the STEM education literature (Andrews et al., 2022 ; Gladstone & Cimpian, 2021 ; Kaya-Fadlelmula et al., 2022 ; López et al., 2022 ; Margot & Kettler, 2019 ; Martín-Páez et al., 2019 ; Nguyen et al., 2021 ), it is noteworthy that previous studies only explored undergraduate instruction in STEM education (Andrews et al., 2022 ; Henderson et al., 2011 ; Nguyen et al., 2021 ). Therefore, to fill the research gap, this current study conducted a systematic analysis of literature to understand the educational goals and instructional designs for K-12 STEM education from articles published between 2012 and 2021. The research questions of this study were formulated as follows:
What STEM education goals were more focused on in the reviewed articles? What was the trend of educational goals in the reviewed articles?
What instructional designs were more focused on in the reviewed articles? What was the trend of the instructional design in the review articles?
What instructional designs were more focused on to achieve certain educational goals in the reviewed articles?
What features of instructional designs were more focused on in the reviewed articles?
To identify the target literature for further analysis, this study conducted several rounds of searching the Web of Science (WOS) database for articles (Gough et al., 2012 ; Møller & Myles, 2016 ). A systematic literature review using the PRISMA guidelines was used for article selection (Møller & Myles, 2016 ). First, we searched for articles using the keyword “STEM Education” along with “learning”, “teaching”, “curriculum”, and “professional development”, to refine the search results. The search identified a total of 1,531 articles published in the Web of Science from 2012 to 2021 (Fig. 1 ). We initially excluded duplicated articles; the search retrieved a total of 1,513 articles. We then screened the titles, abstract, and keywords of the articles based on the following criteria: (a) empirical research; (b) incorporating instructional design and strategies into STEM teaching; (c) including intervention; (d) focusing on K-12 education and on assessment of learning outcomes; and (e) excluding higher education and STEAM education. During this screening, we discussed which articles met the criteria through round-table discussions, and determined the preliminary target candidates composed of 394 articles. A full-text examination was then conducted. In this round of examination, we removed the articles without clear information about the educational goals and instructional designs related to STEM education. Finally, a corpus of literature comprising 229 articles was formed for further analysis.
PRISMA flow diagram of articles selection
According to the research questions, for this study, we developed a coding framework to conduct content analysis and to categorize the target literature. We first selected paradigmatic references of STEM education and instructional design from high quality publications. These articles provided sets of core concepts and terms to shape the provisional coding categories. We then constantly reviewed the paradigmatic references and discussed them to improve the coding scheme. The final analytic framework with coding categories was developed as follows. The first category, STEM educational goals, includes engagement and career choice (Honey et al., 2014 ; Hsu & Fang, 2019 ), STEM literacy (Falloon et al., 2020 ; Jackson et al., 2021 ), and twenty-first century competencies (Boon, 2019 ) (see Appendix 1). The second category, instructional design, includes design-based learning (Yata et al., 2020 ), inquiry-based learning (Bybee, 2010 ; Halawa et al., 2020 ), project-based learning (Capraro & Slough, 2013 ), and problem-based learning (Priemer et al., 2020 ). From the review articles, we found that 6E - oriented STEM (engage, explore, explain, engineer, enrich, and evaluate) and game-based learning were used for STEM education. These two instructional designs were added to our coding scheme. Articles that did not specify the instructional design were coded as “others”. We then analyzed the outcomes to see whether instructional design successfully improved STEM educational goals. We analyzed design-based, inquiry-based, and project-based learning to achieve engagement and career choice, STEM literacy, and a combination of engagement and career choice and STEM literacy because the selected articles mainly concentrated on them. We categorized the outcomes as positively improved, partially improved, and none (Amador et al., 2021 ). Instructional design that successfully increased STEM educational goals was categorized as positively improved. Instructional design that only increased a part of STEM educational goals was categorized as partially improved. If the instructional design did not increase STEM educational goals, we categorized it as none.
We then extended our coding scheme to identify the features of design-based, inquiry-based, and project-based learning. We focused on these three instructional designs because the selected articles mainly adopted them. Yata et al. ( 2020 ) proposed designing, building, and testing as the features of design-based learning. Other features of instructional designs including questioning or identifying problems, experimenting, analyzing, explaining, collaborating, communicating, and reflecting were proposed as features of inquiry-based learning (Bybee, 2010 ; Halawa et al., 2020 ) and project-based learning (Capraro et al., 2013 ). From the review articles, we found that redesigning was one of the features of instructional design and so added it to the coding scheme. These features of instructional designs were adopted for our coding scheme including questioning or identifying problems, designing, building, testing, experimenting, analyzing, collaborating, reflecting, communicating, and redesigning (Appendix 2). We then calculated the number of articles that adopted these features of instructional designs. We further summarized the features of instructional designs that were frequently used in the selected articles.
In order to make sure the coding process was reliable, we conducted a trial coding by randomly selecting 40 articles and individually categorizing the articles into the aforementioned categories: (a) STEM education goal, and (b) instructional design. Interrater reliability was calculated using a percent agreement metric reaching an acceptable level of 0.85 (McHugh, 2012 ). The discrepancies between authors were negotiated and solved through discussions. The NVivo 11 software was utilized to complete coding works on the remaining articles. We then calculated and reported descriptive statistics of the coded data as the analytic results.
Table 1 shows that more articles focused on engagement and career choice (64 articles) and STEM literacy (61 articles) than twenty-first century competencies (16 articles). The articles also mainly focused on a combination of engagement and career choice and STEM literacy (47 articles) and a combination of engagement and career choice and twenty-first century competencies (18 articles). Nine articles were found that focused on the three learning goals of engagement and career choice, STEM literacy, and twenty-first century competencies.
Table 1 shows the numbers of articles regarding educational goals for STEM education for each 2 years in the review papers. The number of articles per 2 years increased from 2012 to 2021. The trend analysis indicated that engagement and career choice and STEM literacy increased greatly from 2014 to 2021. The numbers of articles focused on the combination of two educational goals (STEM literacy and twenty-first competencies) and three learning goals (engagement and career choice, STEM literacy, and twenty-first competencies) from 2016 to 2021 are also presented.
Table 2 reveals the numbers of articles that used instructional design for STEM education. The instructional designs of design-based, inquiry-based, project-based, and problem-based learning were mainly used and continued to be used over the study period. The trend analysis indicated a big jump in design-based, inquiry-based, and project-based learning from 2018 to 2021.
Table 2 also shows the instructional designs and educational goals for STEM from review papers. Most articles adopted design-based (80 articles), inquiry-based (46 articles), project-based (42 articles), and problem-based (27 articles) learning.
The findings shown in Table 3 identified that STEM instructional designs were used differently to achieve engagement and career choice, STEM literacy, and the combination of engagement and career choice and STEM literacy. We found that design-based learning was mainly adopted to achieve STEM literacy (28 articles), while inquiry-based learning was mainly used to achieve engagement and career choice (14 articles) and the combination of engagement and career choice and STEM literacy (14 articles). Also, more articles (15 articles) adopted project-based learning to achieve engagement and career choice. Furthermore, more design-based learning (7 articles) and problem-based learning (4 articles) than inquiry-based learning (2 articles) and project-based learning (1) articles were adopted to achieve twenty-first century competencies.
As we identified that a major portion of the articles adopted design-based learning, inquiry-based learning, and project-based learning focused on engagement and career choice, STEM literacy, and a combination of engagement and career choice and STEM literacy (see Table 3 ), we focused further analysis on the outcomes of STEM educational goals in the articles. The total number of selected articles was 124, of which 54 adopted design-based learning, 37 adopted inquiry-based learning, and 33 adopted project-based learning (Table 4 ).
We categorized the outcomes of STEM education goals into three categories (positively improved, partially improved, and none) (Amador et al., 2021 ). Table 4 shows that the majority of selected articles adopted design-based, inquiry-based, and project-based learning, improving STEM educational goals positively. Most selected articles found that design-based learning positively improved engagement and career choice (10 articles), STEM literacy (26 articles), and a combination of engagement and career choice and STEM literacy (15 articles). Also, most of the selected articles indicated that inquiry learning has a positive impact on engagement and career choice (14 articles), STEM literacy (7 articles), and a combination of engagement and career choice and STEM literacy (13 articles). Project-based learning has demonstrated a beneficial impact on various outcomes, as reported across the selected literature. Specifically, 12 articles documented the enhancement of engagement and career decisions, nine indicated the advancement of STEM literacy, and six discussed a combined effect on engagement, career choice, and STEM literacy.
To identify the frequently used features of STEM instructional design, we further explored the activities in the selected articles. As previous results show that the major part of articles adopted design-based learning, inquiry-based learning, and project-based learning, we further analyzed the frequently used features of these STEM instructional designs that focused on engagement and career choice, STEM literacy, and combination of engagement and career choice and STEM literacy (see Table 3 ). We selected 54 articles that adopted design-based learning, 37 adopted inquiry-based learning, and 33 adopted project-based learning (Table 5 ).
Based on the findings, a large portion of the selected articles adopted design-based learning for STEM education (54 articles). Table 5 shows the features that were adopted to implement instructional design for design-based learning. More than half of the selected articles adopted designing, building, testing, collaborating, experimenting, and reflecting. Building (88.9%), designing (87.0%), and testing (70.4%) were used to engage students in engineering (Yata et al., 2020 ). Besides, engaging students in these activities required students to use their knowledge and skills (Kelley & Knowles, 2016 ). For example, Aranda et al. ( 2020 ) and Lie et al. ( 2019 ) implemented design-based learning by asking students to design a process to both prevent and test for cross-pollination of non-GMO from GMO fields. In these selected articles, the curriculums were focused on helping students with designing, building, and testing.
Collaborating, which engages students in working with their classmates in the process of design-based learning, was also mainly emphasized in the selected articles (64.8%). For instance, English and King ( 2019 ) asked students to work with their groups to discuss the possible design of the bridge. Researchers also emphasized experimenting (53.7%) to engage students in design-based learning. English ( 2019 ) engaged students in investigating their feet and shoes. Students collected, represented, analyzed data, and drew conclusions from their findings. Lie et al. ( 2019 ) helped students conduct an investigation to prevent cross-contamination of non-GMO from GMO corn fields. The last critical feature of design-based learning is reflecting (51.9%). In this activity, students engaged in assessing their solutions against a set of criteria and constraints, generating, and evaluating solutions (Cunningham et al., 2019 ). By engaging students in reflecting, students have an opportunity to improve their design and choose their best strategy (Aranda et al., 2020 ; Lie et al., 2019 ).
As shown in Table 5 , the inquiry-based learning approach was frequently adopted by researchers for STEM education. The features of this approach applied to achieve specific STEM education goals (e.g., engagement and career choice, and STEM literacy) included experimenting (91.9%), collaborating (83.8%), reflecting (62.2%), and communicating (51.4%) (see Table 5 ). This finding indicated that the top three frequently used features of inquiry-based learning in STEM were experimenting, collaborating, and reflecting, which play an essential role when learners try out their ideas about a real-world problem related to STEM. For example, a four-phase inquiry (clarifying the situation, hands-on experiments, representing, analyzing the produced data, and reporting/whole-class discussions) for authentic modeling tasks guided students to develop their credibility of the tasks and to acquire STEM knowledge (Carreira & Baioa, 2018 ).
As previously mentioned, project-based learning is one of the major approaches to support instructional design in the reviewed STEM education studies. The results shown in Table 5 further indicate the features that researchers tended to integrate into instructional design for project-based learning. More than half (51.5%) of the selected articles reported “reflecting” as a pivotal part of teaching that triggered students’ project-based learning. Reflecting is deemed to depict learners’ active perceptions and deliberation of what they encounter and what they are doing. This may contribute to their competence to retrieve appropriate information, to provide feedback, and to revise the project underlying their learning. For example, in Dasgupta et al.’s ( 2019 ) study, a design journal was utilized to help students’ reflection on what they knew, what is necessary to know, as well as their learning outcomes. Vallera and Bodzin ( 2020 ) also addressed the critical design features of their curriculum to help students achieve information obtaining, evaluating, and communicating in the learning project based on real-world contexts.
Besides, researchers focused on project-based learning regarding STEM have a tendency to foster students’ learning via “identifying problems” (48.5%). These studies can be differentiated into two types based on whether the researchers provided a driving question for the learning project. In Vallera and Bodzin’s ( 2020 ) study, the instructional design arranged a clear-cut driving question to guide students’ thinking about helping farmers to prepare products for sale in a farmers’ market. This led students to extend their thinking and identify further problems while solving the driving question. As for Barak and Assal’s ( 2018 ) study, their instructional design provided open-ended tasks and ill-defined problems. Such arrangements were deemed to afford students’ learning through problem defining and learning objective setting.
It is also noteworthy to mention that the percentages of “experimenting” and “collaborating” in studies involved with project-based learning design were lower than those of studies with design-based learning or inquiry-based learning. However, researchers who were interested in STEM project-based learning would still to some extent agree with instructional design that may provide opportunities to students to access authentic scientific activities and social communications.
This study focused on analyzing the STEM educational goals and instructional designs adopted in the 2012–2021 articles. The findings of this study present knowledge and understanding of the educational goals that need to be considered in STEM education, and how these goals could be achieved by adopting various STEM instructional designs.
The majority of reviewed articles adopted instructional designs to achieve the goals of engagement, career choice and STEM literacy. In contrast, few articles focused on twenty-first century competencies. It is not surprising because many recent studies in nature emphasized economic viewpoints and workplace-readiness outcomes in the STEM education field (Cheng et al., 2021 ; Kelley & Knowles, 2016 ). The aspects of engagement and career choice were frequently considered in many previous studies on STEM education (Struyf et al., 2019 ; Vongkulluksn et al., 2018 ; Vossen et al., 2018 ). It indicated that engagement and career choice are important goals for STEM education (Honey et al., 2014 ; Hsu & Fang, 2019 ; Kelley & Knowles, 2016 ). Engaging and motivating students in STEM education are necessary to enhance their understanding of their future careers (Fleer, 2021 ) and to cultivate them to continue STEM learning (Maltese et al., 2014 ). Students who were motivated and interested in STEM education would pursue STEM careers (Maltese & Tai, 2011 ). Furthermore, the aspects of STEM literacy are also addressed in the reviewed articles. The aspects of STEM literacy (e.g., knowledge and capabilities) are deemed important for students’ productive engagement with STEM studies, issues, and practices (Falloon et al., 2020 ). The focus of STEM literacy encourages students to apply their knowledge to life situations and solve problems (Bybee, 2010 ). The importance of STEM literacy has been highlighted in several national documents (e.g., Committee on STEM Education of the National Science & Technology Council, 2018 ; National Research Council, 2011 ; U.S. Department of Education, 2016 ). These findings provide insights into what teaching goals have been focused on in STEM education. For instance, engagement and career choice have been mainly focused on in STEM education because the STEM teaching was designed to connect to the students’ real-world experiences or future professional situations (Strobel et al., 2013 ). The authentic and meaningful experience could engage and motivate students in the activity, and later they should pursue their future careers related to what they have learned.
However, there are few selected articles focused on twenty-first century competencies, although many previous studies considered the twenty-first century competencies as important goals for students. Some studies have advocated that students should be engaged in interdisciplinary sets of complex problems and encourage them to use critical thinking and develop their creativity and innovation as well as collaboration (Finegold & Notabartolo, 2010 ; Jang, 2016 ). Engaging students in STEM education focused on twenty-first century competencies could prepare them for the workplace and help them become successful in STEM-related fields (Jang, 2016 ). Future researchers should consider integrating twenty-first century competencies into STEM education to complement the existing focus on engagement, career choice, and STEM literacy, preparing students for a broader range of skills necessary for the modern workforce.
Although the reviewed articles adopted various instructional designs for STEM education, the articles mostly adopted design-based rather than inquiry-based, project-based, or problem-based learning. The findings are in accordance with the existing literature on STEM education. Notably, these results corroborate the conclusions drawn from a comprehensive systematic review conducted by Mclure et al. ( 2022 ). Design-based learning was adopted to achieve the goals of STEM literacy, engagement and career choice, and this instructional design tended to be used more often according to the trend analysis. This indicated that design-based learning was considered as a main instructional design for STEM education. This instructional design has become an essential approach to engaging K-12 students in STEM education (Bybee, 2013 ; National Academy of Engineering & National Research Council, 2014 ; National Research Council, 2013 ). Some researchers claimed that students who participate in design-based learning could make meaningful connections between knowledge and skills by solving problems (English & King, 2019 ; Kelley et al., 2010 ). Design-based learning engages students in authentic problems and challenges that increase their level of engagement (Sadler et al., 2000 ), help students learn fundamental scientific principles (Mehalik et al., 2008 ), and build students’ natural and intuitive experience (Fortus et al., 2004 ). In the process of design, students learn the concepts of science, technology, and mathematics in the process of designing, building, or testing products (Yata et al., 2020 ). For instance, students have to learn the concept of energy to design a house that produces more renewable energy than it consumes over a period of 1 year (Zheng et al., 2020 ). It was also found that the majority of selected articles which adopted design-based learning successfully improved learners’ engagement, career choice, and STEM literacy (Table 4 ). The results align with the findings of a previous meta-analysis focusing on STEM education at the middle school level (Thomas & Larwin, 2023 ). K-12 students’ STEM learning successfully improved because the selected articles reported studies conducting design-based learning in K-12 education. For example, Cunningham et al. ( 2019 ) successfully implemented design-based learning to improve elementary students’ learning outcomes, while Fan et al. ( 2018 ) found that design-based learning positively improved secondary students’ conceptual knowledge and attitude.
However, the selected articles have not equally used the features of design-based learning such as collaborating, reflecting, and redesigning. We identified that the selected articles mainly used designing, building, and testing to engage students in engineering activities. One of the explanations for this finding is that researchers may face challenges in implementing a full cycle of design-based learning because of the time limit of instruction, so they only focus on the process of designing, building, and testing. Collaborating, reflecting, and redesigning should be emphasized while adopting effective design-based learning because students could solve complex problems by collaborating with others. With collaboration, the students can learn/solve problems through discussion within the group. This activity allows students to share new ideas and debate with others to generate solutions. Reflecting on the data and experience allows students to make improvements to their model and leads them to redesign it to produce a better model. This process could also grow students’ science knowledge (Fortus et al., 2004 ). This finding hence suggests future studies, and educators emphasize more collaborating, reflecting, and redesigning for design-based learning for STEM instruction.
Moreover, inquiry-based learning, project-based learning, and problem-based learning were adopted in some selected articles. Inquiry-based learning was considered to enable and to promote connections within and across curriculum disciplines and improve students’ engagement in STEM education (Attard et al., 2021 ). Project-based and problem-based learning can be used to engage students in authentic problems (Blumenfeld et al., 1991 ) and to improve their engagement in STEM education (Beckett et al., 2016 ). Furthermore, we identified that inquiry-based learning mainly engages students in experimenting, collaborating, and reflecting (Kim, 2016 ), and project-based learning (Han et al., 2015 ) mainly engages students in identifying problems and reflecting. This finding reveals the frequently used features of inquiry-based learning and project-based learning. Teachers could use these components of instructional design for preparing their instruction for teaching STEM. Given these findings, it is advisable to explore the integration of inquiry-based, project-based, and problem-based learning alongside design-based learning in STEM education. Such an approach may enhance the effectiveness of STEM education by providing a more comprehensive strategy to improve STEM literacy, engagement, and career choice among K-12 students.
However, we identified that some essentials of these instructional designs have not been included in selected articles. For instance, studies adopting inquiry-based learning rarely asked students to propose their questions, although questioning is one of the frequently used features of inquiry (National Research Council, 2012 , 2013 ). One of the possible explanations for this finding is that students may have a lack of experience with inquiry learning and not know how to formulate meaningful questions, and they may tend to propose low-level factual questions related to their personal interests (Krajcik et al., 1998 ). Besides, STEM education requires students to engage in complex real-world problems, which requires sufficient ability to propose meaningful questions. Yet, we expect that future studies and teachers should encourage students to propose their own questions because questioning improves students’ creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving skills (Hofstein et al., 2005 ). Teachers could start asking students to propose their own questions once they have experience and ability to propose good questions. Krajcik et al. ( 1998 ) suggested providing situations in which students can receive informative and critical feedback from teachers, classmates, and others so as to propose their own significant questions.
From an instructional design perspective, this study provides crucial insights into practical STEM education approaches. The findings underscore the importance of aligning instructional designs with specific STEM educational goals. The trend analysis revealed a significant increase in focus on engagement, career choice, and STEM literacy from 2014 to 2021, with a particularly sharp rise observed between 2018 and 2021. Each instructional design approach demonstrated unique strengths: design-based learning fosters STEM literacy. In contrast, inquiry-based and project-based learning effectively enhanced engagement and career choice. The study delineates specific features of these instructional designs that contribute to their success, such as building and testing in design-based learning, experimenting and collaborating in inquiry-based learning, and reflecting and problem identification in project-based learning.
Furthermore, this study advocates for a deliberate and systematic application of inquiry-based and project-based learning alongside design-based learning. Such integration is likely to cultivate a more dynamic and interactive learning environment that encourages critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaborative skills among students. The integration of twenty-first century competencies in the instructional design of STEM, though less presented, suggests a potential research space for further exploration of STEM teaching. This study recommends an expanded focus on incorporating these competencies to ensure a holistic educational approach that addresses immediate educational goals and equips students with essential skills for future challenges.
Teachers’ limited understanding of STEM instructional design also presents a significant challenge, necessitating targeted professional development initiatives. Educators must comprehend and implement a comprehensive approach that aligns educational goals with appropriate instructional designs to optimize STEM learning outcomes. This approach involves clearly defining learning objectives, such as STEM literacy, selecting suitable instructional designs, and effectively guiding students through the chosen learning process.
The findings in this study furnish instructional designers and educators with a clear framework for developing targeted STEM curricula. The research accentuates the importance of aligning instructional design features with specific educational goals, suggesting that a nuanced, goal-oriented approach to STEM instruction can significantly enhance student outcomes in literacy, engagement, and career readiness. These insights offer a robust foundation for refining and optimizing instructional design strategies in STEM education.
No applicable.
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The authors express their sincere gratitude to the editors and reviewers for their invaluable inputs and suggestions, which have significantly enhanced the quality of this work.
This work was financially supported by the Institute for Research Excellence in Learning Sciences of National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) from The Featured Areas Research Center Program within the framework of the Higher Education Sprout Project by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Taiwan.
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Suarman Halawa
Center for Teacher Education, National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Tzu-Chiang Lin
Center for the Liberal Arts, National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Graduate Institute of Science Education, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan
Ying-Shao Hsu
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SH contributed to the conception of the study, research question, methods, analysis, and interpretation of the data. TC contributed to the data collection, analysis and interpretation of data, and editing of the manuscript. YS contributed to the conception of the study, data analysis and interpretation, and editing of the manuscript. All authors equally contributed to writing, reading, and approving the manuscript.
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Description of STEM education goals
STEM education goals | Brief description | Representational articles |
---|---|---|
Engagement and career choice | The goals of instruction focus on students’ emotional responses to learning STEM subjects and pursuing a professional degree in one of the STEM fields | Fan et al. ( ) |
STEM literacy | The goals of instruction focus on students’ ability to apply concepts from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to solve problems that cannot be solved with a single subject | Vallera and Bodzin ( ) |
21st-century competencies | The goals of instruction focus on students’ abilities of critical thinking, creativity, innovation, leadership, and adaptability which can be used to adapt in the twenty-first century | Chen and Lin ( ) |
Description of the elements of instructional design for STEM education
Features | Brief description | Representational articles |
---|---|---|
Questioning or identifying problems | Students propose questions or identify problems in the STEM activity | Vallera and Bodzin ( ) |
Designing | Students design their model | Aranda et al. ( ) |
Building | Students build a prototype based on their model | English ( ) |
Testing | Students test their design and prototype | Zheng et al., |
Redesigning | Students redesign their model after they test it | Lie et al. ( ) |
Experimenting | Students engage in hands-on activities in the STEM education | Kim, |
Analyzing | Students use mathematics to analyze the data from the STEM activity | Berland et al. ( ) |
Collaborating | Students interact or collaborate with other students to solve problems in the STEM activity | English and King ( ) |
Reflecting | Students evaluate/assess their experience in the STEM activity | Dasgupta et al. ( ) |
Communicating | Students present/share their work to/with the whole class | Chen and Lin ( ) |
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Cite this article.
Halawa, S., Lin, TC. & Hsu, YS. Exploring instructional design in K-12 STEM education: a systematic literature review. IJ STEM Ed 11 , 43 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-024-00503-5
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Received : 15 April 2024
Accepted : 24 August 2024
Published : 05 September 2024
DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-024-00503-5
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1. Narrative Literature Review. A narrative literature review, also known as a traditional literature review, involves analyzing and summarizing existing literature without adhering to a structured methodology. It typically provides a descriptive overview of key concepts, theories, and relevant findings of the research topic.
As mentioned previously, there are a number of existing guidelines for literature reviews. Depending on the methodology needed to achieve the purpose of the review, all types can be helpful and appropriate to reach a specific goal (for examples, please see Table 1).These approaches can be qualitative, quantitative, or have a mixed design depending on the phase of the review.
It is helpful to familiarise yourself with the different types of articles published by journals. Although it may appear there are a large number of types of articles published due to the wide variety of names they are published under, most articles published are one of the following types; Original Research, Review Articles, Short reports or Letters, Case Studies, Methodologies.
Examples of literature reviews. Step 1 - Search for relevant literature. Step 2 - Evaluate and select sources. Step 3 - Identify themes, debates, and gaps. Step 4 - Outline your literature review's structure. Step 5 - Write your literature review.
Writing a literature review requires a range of skills to gather, sort, evaluate and summarise peer-reviewed published data into a relevant and informative unbiased narrative. Digital access to research papers, academic texts, review articles, reference databases and public data sets are all sources of information that are available to enrich ...
Your choice of review methodology (or literature review type) will be informed by the intent (purpose, function) of your research project and the time and resources of your team. ... Health Information and Libraries Journal 26.2 (2009): 91-108. DOI: 10.1111/j.1471-1842.2009.00848.x Link. Munn, Zachary, et al. "Systematic Review or Scoping ...
What kinds of literature reviews are written? Narrative review: The purpose of this type of review is to describe the current state of the research on a specific topic/research and to offer a critical analysis of the literature reviewed. Studies are grouped by research/theoretical categories, and themes and trends, strengths and weakness, and gaps are identified.
How to write a superb literature review
A literature review is meant to analyze the scholarly literature, make connections across writings and identify strengths, weaknesses, trends, and missing conversations. A literature review should address different aspects of a topic as it relates to your research question. A literature review goes beyond a description or summary of the ...
Writing a literature review requires a range of skills to gather, sort, evaluate and summarise peer-reviewed published data into a relevant and informative unbiased narrative. Digital access to research papers, academic texts, review articles, reference databases and public data sets are all sources of information that are available to enrich ...
Literature includes journal articles, conference proceedings, technical reports, and books. A literature review can also be a short introductory section of a research article, report or policy paper that focuses on recent research. In the anatomy of a scholarly research article example, the literature review is a part of the introduction.
A literature or narrative review is a comprehensive review and analysis of the published literature on a specific topic or research question. The literature that is reviewed contains: books, articles, academic articles, conference proceedings, association papers, and dissertations. It contains the most pertinent studies and points to important ...
Grey Literature Sources (Websites, theses, clinical trials +more) Electronic Journals (Browse journals, or look for a place to publish) Types of Review Articles (Literature, Scoping and Systematic) Research Methods (Designing your own research; calculating statistics) Indigenous Research and Resources ; Patents - Where to Search
Types of Literature Reviews. There are different types of literature reviews, and different purposes for writing a review, but the most common are: Stand-alone literature review articles. These provide an overview and analysis of the current state of research on a topic or question.
Tertiary Literature. Tertiary literature consists of a distillation and collection of primary and secondary sources such as textbooks, encyclopedia articles, and guidebooks or handbooks. The purpose of tertiary literature is to provide an overview of key research findings and an introduction to principles and practices within the discipline.
INTRODUCTION. Writing the literature review (LR) is often viewed as a difficult task that can be a point of writer's block and procrastination in postgraduate life.Disagreements on the definitions or classifications of LRs may confuse students about their purpose and scope, as well as how to perform an LR.Interestingly, at many universities, the LR is still an important element in any ...
Theoretical Articles. Distinguishing characteristic: Theoretical articles draw on existing scholarship to improve upon or offer a new theoretical perspective on a given topic. Usefulness for research: Theoretical articles are useful because they provide a theoretical framework you can apply to your own research.
A literature review is probably the most common academic writing activity that is performed by scholars and graduate students. Imel [7] identified a literature review as being either part of a larger study or as a research effort on its own. As a part of a larger study, Imel [7] identified the literature is "the foundation for the study.".
When searching the literature for pertinent papers and reviews, the usual rules apply: be thorough, use different keywords and database sources (e.g., DBLP, Google Scholar, ISI Proceedings, JSTOR Search, Medline, Scopus, Web of Science), and. look at who has cited past relevant papers and book chapters.
The Literature Review Defined. In medical education, no organization has articulated a formal definition of a literature review for a research paper; thus, a literature review can take a number of forms. Depending on the type of article, target journal, and specific topic, these forms will vary in methodology, rigor, and depth.
Types of Literature Reviews: Critically Appraised Topic (CATs) : A critically appraised topic (or CAT) is a short summary of evidence on a topic of interest, usually focused around a clinical question. A CAT is like a shorter and less rigorous version of a systematic review, summarizing the best available research evidence on a topic.
Qualitative, narrative synthesis. Thematic analysis, may include conceptual models. Rapid review. Assessment of what is already known about a policy or practice issue, by using systematic review methods to search and critically appraise existing research. Completeness of searching determined by time constraints.
This article is a practical guide to conducting data analysis in general literature reviews. The general literature review is a synthesis and analysis of published research on a relevant clinical issue, and is a common format for academic theses at the bachelor's and master's levels in nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, public health and other related fields.
Developing a Literature Review . 1. Purpose and Scope. To help you develop a literature review, gather information on existing research, sub-topics, relevant research, and overlaps. Note initial thoughts on the topic - a mind map or list might be helpful - and avoid unfocused reading, collecting irrelevant content. ... Journal Articles: Offer ...
Search strategy. This systematic literature review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines [].Embase, MEDLINE and the Cochrane Library were searched for studies related to the clinical and socioeconomic burden of bronchiectasis (noncystic fibrosis bronchiectasis (NCFBE) and cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis (CFBE)) using ...
This paper aims to conduct a bibliometric analysis and traditional literature review concerning collaborative project delivery (CPD) methods, with an emphasis on design-build (DB), construction management at risk (CMAR), and integrated project delivery (PD) Methods. This article seeks to identify the most influential publications, reveal the advantages and disadvantages of CPD, and determine ...
In healthcare settings worldwide, workplace violence (WPV) has been extensively studied. However, significantly less is known about gender-based WPV and the characteristics of perpetrators. We conducted a comprehensive scoping review on Type II (directed by consumers) and Type III (perpetuated by healthcare workers) gender based-WPV among nurses and physicians globally. For the review, we ...
Data collection. To identify the target literature for further analysis, this study conducted several rounds of searching the Web of Science (WOS) database for articles (Gough et al., 2012; Møller & Myles, 2016).A systematic literature review using the PRISMA guidelines was used for article selection (Møller & Myles, 2016).First, we searched for articles using the keyword "STEM Education ...
Methods: In this scoping review, the concepts of metaphor and pharmacy students were searched with no date limitations in Medline, APA PsycINFO, CINAHL, Education Research Complete, and ERIC. In addition, 4 pharmacy education journals were searched with variations of the word metaphor. After removing duplicates, 88 articles were screened using Covidence software and pre-established eligibility ...
Provenance and peer review. Not commissioned, externally peer-reviewed. Consent. Written informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this case report and accompanying images. A copy of the written consent is available for review by the Editor-in-Chief of this journal on request. Ethical approval