Synthesising evidence from decades of meditation-based research across populations, interventions, comparisons and outcomes: protocol for a meta-analytic database of randomised controlled trials via the MetaCIH Collaborative.

Abstract

The evidence base for meditation-based interventions has been growing significantly in the past decades, as well as other complementary and integrative health interventions. In parallel, meditation practices have become increasingly popular in the public and across various sectors (eg, education, workplace, healthcare). There is a need for rigorously conducted evidence synthesis in this growing area of literature. An expert-curated, publicly available data repository of randomised controlled trials with regular updates, coupled with built-in meta-analytic tools, could serve this purpose. This protocol describes the creation of a living review dataset stored in a publicly available platform to support systematic reviews and meta-analyses of randomised controlled trials of meditation-based interventions. To be included, studies need to use a randomised controlled trial design, include a meditation-based intervention that is two or more weeks/sessions in duration and report quantitative data that can be used in meta-analysis. There are no restrictions to study population, comparator or outcome. Search will be carried out across PubMed/MEDLINE, PsycINFO/PsycArticles, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Embase, CINAHL, SCOPUS and Web of Science. The database will be updated approximately every 6 months. Meta-analyses will be conducted using the 'metapsyTools' package (V.1.0.11 or higher) in R. Cochrane Risk of Bias tool V.2 will be used to evaluate risk of bias. Publication bias will be evaluated via funnel plots and trim-and-fill analyses, Rücker's 'limit meta-analysis method' and the three-parameter selection model. Ethics approval is not applicable. The findings from this study will result in a public-facing meta-analytic database, which will be disseminated through open-access repositories, peer-reviewed manuscripts, presentations at relevant national and international conferences, social media and news media platforms and leveraging the study team's existing relationships with stakeholders in the integrative health field and the community advisory board. CRD42024610197.