Systematic Literature review – Emerging Occupational Health Hazard.

A. Conduct a systematic literature review on the topic of specific sedentary work, as it relates to Low Back Pain and a possible Occupational Disease.  The topic should be of high relevance for Occupational Health, thus relate to an Occupational Disease and have a potential for attracting the interest of an audience.  Example: The association between office work and spondyloarthritis.
B. Develop a structure of your systematic literature review.
C. Research relevant scientific databases for quality publications, with a focus on journals, conference proceedings and then books. Publications of government agencies also qualify.
D. Conduct the analytic assessment, and summarize the findings of your systematic literature review in a report.

The Structure in a systematic review
•    Step 1: Framing questions for a review
The problems to be aIDressed by the review should be specified in the form of clear, unambiguous and structured questions before beginning the review work. Once the review questions have been set, modifications to the protocol should be allowed only if alternative ways of defining the populations, interventions, outcomes or study designs become apparent
•    Step 2: Identifying relevant work
The search for studies should be extensive. Multiple resources (both computerized and printed) should be searched without language restrictions. The study selection criteria should flow directly from the review questions and be specified a priori. Reasons for inclusion and exclusion should be recorded
•    Step 3: Assessing the quality of studies
Study quality assessment is relevant to every step of a review. Question formulation (Step 1) and study selection criteria (Step 2) should describe the minimum acceptable level of design. Selected studies should be subjected to a more refined quality assessment by use of general critical appraisal guides and design-based quality checklists (Step 3). These detailed quality assessments will be used for exploring heterogeneity and informing decisions regarding suitability of meta-analysis (Step 4). In aIDition they help in assessing the strength of inferences and making recommendations for future research (Step 5)
•    Step 4: Summarizing the evidence
Data synthesis consists of tabulation of study characteristics, quality and effects as well as use of statistical methods for exploring differences between studies and combining their effects (meta-analysis). Exploration of heterogeneity and its sources should be planned in advance (Step 3). If an overall meta-analysis cannot be done, subgroup meta-analysis may be feasible
•    Step 5: Interpreting the findings
The issues highlighted in each of the four steps above should be met. The risk of publication bias and related biases should be explored. Exploration for heterogeneity should help determine whether the overall summary can be trusted, and, if not, the effects observed in high-quality studies should be used for generating inferences. Any recommendations should be graded by reference to the strengths and weaknesses of the evidence