Effectiveness of personal letters to healthcare professionals in changing professional behaviours: a systematic review protocol

Systematic Reviews

Mei Yee Tang¹  Falko F. Sniehotta¹  Louis Goffe¹  Aikaterini Grimani²  Ivo Vlaev²  Fiona Beyer³ 

[1] NIHR Policy Research Unit in Behavioural Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK;Population Health Sciences Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK;NIHR Policy Research Unit in Behavioural Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK;Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK;Population Health Sciences Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK;

关键词: Healthcare professionals;    Personal letters;    Behavioural change;    Systematic review;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s13643-021-01650-4

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundLetters are regularly sent by healthcare organisations to healthcare professionals to encourage them to take action, change practice or implement guidance. However, whether letters are an effective tool in delivering a change in healthcare professional behaviour is currently uncertain. In addition, there are currently no evidence-based guidelines to support health providers and authorities with advice on how to formulate the communication, what information and behaviour change techniques to include in order to optimise the potential effect on the behaviour of the receivers. To address this research gap, we seek to inform such guidance through this systematic review, which aims to provide comprehensive evidence of the effectiveness of personal letters to healthcare professionals in changing their professional behaviours.Methods/designA comprehensive literature search of published and unpublished studies (the grey literature) in electronic databases will be conducted to identify randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that meet our inclusion criteria. We will include RCTs evaluating the effectiveness of personal letters to healthcare professionals in changing professional behaviours. The primary outcome will be behavioural change. The search will be conducted in five electronic databases (from their inception onwards): MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, the Cochrane Library and CINAHL. We will also conduct supplementary searches in Google Scholar, hand search relevant journals, and conduct backward and forward citation searching for included studies and relevant reviews. A systematic approach to searching, screening, reviewing and data extraction will be applied in accordance with the process recommended by the Cochrane Collaboration. Two researchers will examine titles, abstracts, full-texts for eligibility independently. Risk of bias will be assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias 2 (RoB 2) tool for randomised controlled trials. Disagreements will be resolved by a consensus procedure.DiscussionHealth policy makers across government are expected to benefit from being able to increase compliance in clinical settings by applying theories of behaviour to design of policy communications. The synthesised findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publication.Systematic review registrationPROSPERO CRD42020167674

【 授权许可】

CC BY