Development of Evidence-Based COVID-19 Management Guidelines for Local Context: The Methodological Challenges

Table 1

Selection criteria and search strategy.

Characteristics	Inclusion criteria	Exclusion criteria	Search string
Study participants	Studies including adult human participants/patients (age ≥18 years) of either sex with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 in a hospital setting.	Studies including pregnant women.	(COVID-19 [MeSH] OR corona OR SARS-CoV-2 OR “coronavirus disease” OR “coronavirus infection”[MeSH] OR “Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2” OR “coronavirus-2019” OR “novel coronavirus” OR “COVID-19 pandemic” OR 2019nCoV) AND (adult[MeSH] OR young adult[MeSH] OR “adulthood”) AND (“admission” OR “admitted inpatient” OR “in-patient” [MeSH] OR “Hospitalization” [MeSH] OR “Hospitalized” [MeSH] OR “stay”) AND
Interventions	Observational and interventional studies describing the use of the following pharmacologic interventions for the treatment of COVID-19: (i) Steroids (dexamethasone, hydrocortisone, and prednisone methylprednisolone); (ii) Anticoagulation; (iii) Remdesivir; (iv) Antibiotics; (v) Colchicine; (vi) Tocilizumab; (vii) Other investigational therapies (convalescent plasma, intravenous immunoglobulin, plasmapheresis, ivermectin, and famotidine).	Pharmacologic or nonpharmacologic treatment interventions other than those specified in inclusion criteria.	(intervention OR drug OR pharma OR medic OR treatment) AND (“Hydroxychloroquine”[Mesh] OR “Azithromycin”[Mesh] OR “Doxycycline”[Mesh] OR “Amoxicillin”[Mesh] OR anticoagul OR “ Low-Molecular-Weight Heparin” OR “Unfractionated Heparin” OR “remdesivir”[MeSH] OR “antibiotics”[MeSH] OR “antiviral” OR “investigational therapies”[MeSH] OR “convalescent plasma” OR “intravenous immunoglobulin”[MeSH] OR “plasmapheresis”[MeSH] OR “ivermectin”[MeSH] OR “famotidine”[MeSH] OR “tocilizumab” OR steroid OR “dexamethasone”[MeSH] OR “hydrocortisone”[MeSH] OR “Methylprednisolone” OR “prednisone”[MeSH]) OR “colchicine”[MeSH]) AND
Outcomes	Studies describing at least one of the following primary or secondary outcome measures: (a) Primary outcomes: (i) In-hospital mortality; (ii) Length of hospital stay.; (b) Secondary outcomes: (i) Progression of disease; (ii) Treatment of adverse effects	—	(“survival” [MeSH] OR recover OR discharge OR “death” [MeSH] OR “mortality” [MeSH] OR “fatality”)