Recommendations for the conduct of systematic reviews in toxicology and environmental health research (COSTER)

Paul Whaley; Elisa Aiassa; Claire Beausoleil; Anna Beronius; Gary Bilotta; Alan Boobis; Rob de Vries; Annika Hanberg; Sebastian Hoffmann; Neil Hunt; Carol F Kwiatkowski; Juleen Lam; Steven Lipworth; Olwenn Martin; Nicola Randall; Lorenz Rhomberg; Andrew A Rooney; Holger J Schünemann; Daniele Wikoff; Taylor Wolffe; Crispin Halsall

doi:10.1016/j.envint.2020.105926

Recommendations for the conduct of systematic reviews in toxicology and environmental health research (COSTER)

Environ Int. 2020 Oct:143:105926. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2020.105926. Epub 2020 Jul 9.

Authors

Paul Whaley¹, Elisa Aiassa², Claire Beausoleil³, Anna Beronius⁴, Gary Bilotta⁵, Alan Boobis⁶, Rob de Vries⁷, Annika Hanberg⁸, Sebastian Hoffmann⁹, Neil Hunt¹⁰, Carol F Kwiatkowski¹¹, Juleen Lam¹², Steven Lipworth¹³, Olwenn Martin¹⁴, Nicola Randall¹⁵, Lorenz Rhomberg¹⁶, Andrew A Rooney¹⁷, Holger J Schünemann¹⁸, Daniele Wikoff¹⁹, Taylor Wolffe²⁰, Crispin Halsall²¹

Affiliations

¹ Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YQ, UK. Electronic address: p.whaley@lancaster.ac.uk.
² European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), Assessment and Methodological Support Unit, Via Carlo Magno 1/A, 43126 Parma, Italy. Electronic address: elisa.aiassa@efsa.europa.eu.
³ ANSES (French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety), Risk Assessment Department, Chemical Substances Assessment Unit, F-94700 Maisons-Alfort, France. Electronic address: claire.beausoleil@anses.fr.
⁴ Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. Electronic address: anna.beronius@ki.se.
⁵ School of Environment and Technology, University of Brighton, Brighton, UK.
⁶ National Heart & Lung Institute, Imperial College London, London, UK. Electronic address: a.boobis@imperial.ac.uk.
⁷ SYRCLE, Department for Health Evidence, Radboud Institute for Health Sciences, Radboudumc, Nijmegen, the Netherlands. Electronic address: rob.devries@radboudumc.nl.
⁸ Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. Electronic address: annika.hanberg@ki.se.
⁹ Evidence-based Toxicology Collaboration at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Paderborn, Germany. Electronic address: sebastian.hoffmann@seh-cs.com.
¹⁰ Yordas Group, Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YQ, UK. Electronic address: n.hunt@yordasgroup.com.
¹¹ The Endocrine Disruption Exchange, P.O. Box 54, Eckert, CO 81418, USA.
¹² University of California, San Francisco and California State University, East Bay, 28500 Carlos Bee Blvd Room 502, Hayward, CA 94542, USA. Electronic address: Juleen.Lam@csueb.edu.
¹³ Royal Society of Chemistry, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BA, UK.
¹⁴ Institute for the Environment, Health and Societies, Brunel University London, Uxbridge, UK. Electronic address: olwenn.martin@brunel.ac.uk.
¹⁵ Harper Adams University, Newport, Shropshire, UK. Electronic address: nrandall@harper-adams.ac.uk.
¹⁶ One Beacon Street, 17th Floor, Boston, MA 02108, USA. Electronic address: lrhomberg@gradientcorp.com.
¹⁷ Division of the National Toxicology Program, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, NC, USA. Electronic address: andrew.rooney@nih.gov.
¹⁸ McGRADE Centre and Michael G De Groote Cochrane Canada Centre, Dept. of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON, Canada. Electronic address: schuneh@mcmaster.ca.
¹⁹ ToxStrategies, 31 College Place, Suite B118B, Asheville, NC 28801, USA. Electronic address: dwikoff@toxstrategies.com.
²⁰ Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YQ, UK. Electronic address: t.wolffe@lancaster.ac.uk.
²¹ Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YQ, UK. Electronic address: c.halsall@lancaster.ac.uk.

PMID: 32653802
DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2020.105926

Abstract

Background: There are several standards that offer explicit guidance on good practice in systematic reviews (SRs) for the medical sciences; however, no similarly comprehensive set of recommendations has been published for SRs that focus on human health risks posed by exposure to environmental challenges, chemical or otherwise.

Objectives: To develop an expert, cross-sector consensus view on a key set of recommended practices for the planning and conduct of SRs in the environmental health sciences.

Methods: A draft set of recommendations was derived from two existing standards for SRs in biomedicine and developed in a consensus process, which engaged international participation from government, industry, non-government organisations, and academia. The consensus process consisted of a workshop, follow-up webinars, email discussion and bilateral phone calls.

Results: The Conduct of Systematic Reviews in Toxicology and Environmental Health Research (COSTER) recommendations cover 70 SR practices across eight performance domains. Detailed explanations for specific recommendations are made for those identified by the authors as either being novel to SR in general, specific to the environmental health SR context, or potentially controversial to environmental health SR stakeholders.

Discussion: COSTER provides a set of recommendations that should facilitate the production of credible, high-value SRs of environmental health evidence, and advance discussion of a number of controversial aspects of conduct of EH SRs. Key recommendations include the management of conflicts of interest, handling of grey literature, and protocol registration and publication. A process for advancing from COSTER's recommendations to developing a formal standard for EH SRs is also indicated.

Keywords: Environmental health; Epidemiology; Health assessment; Meta-analysis; Research standards; Research synthesis methods; Systematic review; Toxicology.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Consensus
Environmental Health*
Humans
Systematic Reviews as Topic*