Drawing conclusions

The purpose of Cochrane Reviews is to facilitate healthcare decision-making by patients and the general public, by clinicians or other healthcare workers, administrators and policy makers. Such people will rely on the 'summary of findings' tables, discussion and authors' conclusions to make sense of the information in the review and to help them to interpret the results and the strength of the available evidence. The 'summary of findings' table presents a summary of the review findings in a clear, transparent, and structured format, as well as key information about the strength of the evidence. The discussion section usually starts with a summary of the main findings from the review, placed in the context of other research and knowledge. Finally, the authors' conclusions section should explain the implications of the review findings for practice and for research. In this chapter, the authors provide suggestions on how to approach each of these sections.