Injury and rehabilitation interventions in humanitarian crises: quality of the evidence
Citation: Smith J, Roberts B, Knight A, et al. A systematic literature review of the quality of evidence for injury and rehabilitation interventions in humanitarian crises. International Journal of Public Health. 2015;60(7):865-72.
Language: Abstract and full text only available in EN.
Free to view: Yes.
Funding sources: Wellcome Trust and UK Department for International Development (DfID).
What is this? Injury and rehabilitation interventions are important components of the health response during humanitarian crises.
In this systematic review, the authors searched for studies of the effects of public health interventions during humanitarian crises in low- or middle-income countries (LMICs) in order to assess the quality of this research. They restricted their searches to articles published in English or French between 1 January 1980 and 30 April 2013. They included 46 studies, mostly focussing on interventions during armed conflict and disasters in Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
What was found: 38 studies described programmes implemented during the acute phase of a humanitarian crisis, 4 assessed health outcomes during the early recovery phase and 4 during the stabilisation phase.
The number and the quality of papers increased from 1980 to 2013. 27 (59%) studies were published since 2000 and 15 (79%) of the 19 moderate- or high-quality studies were published in the same time period.
The only two high quality studies identified were published in 2012 and 2013.
Implications: The authors of this review concluded that, although the quality of research in humanitarian settings has increased in the recent years, insufficient attention is still paid to it despite increasing number of humanitarian actors and allocated budget. They suggested that research on long-term health interventions should be prioritised and that there should be more focus on follow-ups in the post-acute period of humanitarian crises.
Other considerations: The authors of the review did not discuss their findings in the context of issues relating to health equity.
This summary was prepared by Alessio Bellato and edited and finalized by Mike Clarke.