Developing a database of behavioural medicine interventions

Abstract

To describe the development of the Cochrane Behavioral Medicine Field database of interventions and its contribution to the knowledge base of this field. A list of behavioural medicine interventions was solicited from content experts. The resulting list of index terms was used to generate a comprehensive search strategy to retrieve relevant records, and a thesaurus of terms with which to index them. The records are included in a register. A subset of records have been coded for study design, health condition, intervention, study participants, setting and provider and made available in a public online database. The Cochrane Behavioral Medicine Field database consists of over 3500 records of systematic reviews, meta-analyses and randomized controlled trials for public educational use. The register provides a comprehensive listing of studies relating to behavioural medicine interventions. The public online database enables easy access to the evidence base and provides enhanced details of the studies included on it. These databases are a valuable resource for the behavioural medicine community. Other fields are encouraged to duplicate these methods in the design of content-specific databases. © 2007 The authorsJournal compilation © 2007 Health Libraries Group.