Methods Section, Capstone Project Example

The Effectiveness of Kinesiology Tape (KT) for Secondary Lymphedema in Post-Breast Cancer Treatment

Methods: Systematic Review

Our study uses a systematic literature review approach to collect relevant data on the effectiveness of Kinesiology taping for secondary lymphedema post breast cancer treatment and BCRL.

Eligibility criteria

Five different databases were used to create a compilation of search results. CINHAL, Epistemonikos, MEDLINE, Trip database, and OTSeeker were the databases utilized in the search. After the screening process, 88 articles were determined to be eligible to include in the study. Following the identification of duplicates, 48 articles remained from the search. Then 48 articles were included in the screening process and screened for eligibility based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria of the study. During this part of the screening process, 34 articles were excluded. Following the removal of the ineligible articles, two additional articles were also removed because they were not RCTs but rather Systematic Reviews that violated the inclusion criteria of the study. The study consisted of research compiled from 12 different articles (n = 12).

The search process was divided amongst the three researchers. All three researchers participated in the MEDLINE database search synchronously. A reference services coordinator was contacted to aid in the Trip Database search. The remaining three databases (Epistemonikos CINAHL, OTSeeker) were each randomly assigned to the three researchers to continue the rest of the search. For the process similar to the search protocol was applied across the database searches (see Table 1 listed below). The search protocol for the research collection consisted of identical search strategies, keywords, and limitations for the search.

Some of the keywords used included breast cancer, Lymphedema or Edema, taping or tape, and Kinesio tape. The search strategy included research published between 2010- 2020, articles published in the English language, and specified female participants.

Table 1: The table below provides the terms utilized for each of the database searches utilized within the study

The Keywords used for the search protocol were identical in all the databases as listed on the table above.

Screening

The PICOSS acronym was used to create the inclusion and exclusion criteria of the research study. PICOSS was utilized as the researcher’s screening tool and is short for population, intervention, comparators, outcomes, study design, and setting. The inclusion criteria encompassed studies with female subjects diagnosed with secondary lymphedema post breast cancer treatment using Kinesiology Taping (KT) as an intervention. Besides, further criteria for inclusion required the studies to be formatted as a randomized control trial design (RCTs). The only outcome measurement that was made a part of the inclusion criteria was the recorded volume of the limb impacted by lymphedema. For more information, see table 2 listed below.

Table 2: The table below represents the inclusion and exclusion criteria screening tools utilized for each of the articles included within the study.

The screening protocol was completed by two of the researchers. During this process, they excluded the studies that did not meet the inclusion criteria and kept those that did. After the screening process, 88 articles were determined to be eligible to include in the study. Additional articles were removed due to being ineligible, duplicates, or being a systematic review or any design other than RCT study design.

To ensure the quality control of the screening process, two researchers began systematically evaluating articles first by reading the article title, then the abstracts to determine if the initial inclusion criteria were met. If more information was required to determine whether the study met the inclusion criteria, reading an analysis of the full-text article following the abstract. Two researchers were directly involved in the screening process, reinforcing the presence of quality control.