Previous Stages of The People's Review
Stage 1: Suggest a Question
All good reviews start with a good question. Everyday we make decisions about our health, and we are bombarded with information about how to be healthier, happier, fitter.... But, have you ever wondered about whether there is research to back up the things that you've been advised to do? We asked you to suggest questions we might use for The People's Review. You came up with some great questions.... 185 in total.
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This video from Charlene describes the types of questions we asked for.​​
Stage 1 is Now Closed
In Stage 1 - the public suggested 185 brilliant questions! The team working behind-the-scenes took a closer look at these. Some people suggested similar questions (great minds think alike, right?). Some of you came up with some great questions that unfortunately we can't answer in this project. For example if the question was not relatable to lots of people or if the question had already been answered with a systematic review (we don't want to waste our time doing a review on a question we already know the answer to, right?). ​Click here to see the list of questions we didn't bring forward to Stage 2 and the reasons why. ​
Stage 2: Choose the Question
A really important part of the systematic review process is making sure that the question we tackle is one that people want to know the answer to. Stage 2 involved two rounds of surveys to decide the people's favourite question!
We want to make sure that The People's Review tackles a question that answers a real gap in our knowledge. If we didn't do this then we might waste lots peoples time (and some money!) by trying to answer a question that has already been answered! This step helps us reduce research waste. Research waste shouldn’t happen, but it does. See here for more information on research waste.​
​In this video Patricia describes the process we will use to decide our review question. ​​​
Stage 2 is Now Closed
In Stage 2 we brought forward 21 questions that people voted on in two rounds of surveys. In Round 1, 193 people let us know how much or how little they liked each question. Then, we went back to the public with three* possible options to rank in order of preference. 188 people ranked the questions, to decide the People's favourite question. ​
*Originally we planned for the public to rank the top 5 questions. But, on closer inspection, we found that some of our top-ranking questions had already been answered by previous research. See the list of questions from Stage 2 here.
Stage 3: Plan the Review
The People's Review question is...
Does resistance training make a difference to quality of life or heart health for older adults compared to aerobic exercise?
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We asked the public to help us decide how to answer this question. In particular what we mean by older adults (the population), resistance training (the intervention), aerobic exercise (the comparator), quality of life and heart health (the outcomes). ​
​In this video Laura explains what Stage 3: Plan the Review involves. ​​
Stage 3 is Now Closed
In Stage 3, 216 people were involved in planning how to answer the people's favourite question. The people decided that we will:
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Include studies with people over the age of 50
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Define resistance training as a type of exercise that involves muscle contraction against an external force. For example, a weight you lift, an elastic band you pull, or resisting gravity using your body weight.
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Define aerobic exercise as any activity that increases your heart beat and oxygen consumption, making you breathe more rapidly. Examples of aerobic exercise are walking, running, cycling, or swimming.
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Include studies where participants take part in at least 8 sessions of either resistance training or aerobic exercise
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Focus on functional fitness as the measure for heart health
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Explore the differences between groups including between sex, age categories, co-morbidities, geographic location or ethnicity.
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Stage 4: Select the Studies will open soon. We will email you once Stage 4 opens. Sign up to our newsletter or follow us on social media, to be the first to hear once the next stage opens.