Evidence
Overview of 2018 surveillance methods
Overview of 2018 surveillance methods
NICE's surveillance team checked whether recommendations in physical activity in the workplace (NICE guideline PH13) remain up to date.
The surveillance process consisted of:
-
initial feedback from topic experts via a questionnaire
-
input from voluntary and community sector organisations and stakeholders on known variations in practice and policy priorities
-
literature searches to identify relevant evidence
-
assessing the new evidence against current recommendations and deciding whether or not to update sections of the guideline, or the whole guideline
-
consulting on the decision with stakeholders and considering comments received during consultation.
For further details about the process and the possible update decisions that are available, see ensuring that published guidelines are current and accurate in developing NICE guidelines: the manual.
Evidence considered in surveillance
Search and selection strategy
We searched for new evidence related to the whole guideline.
We found 20 studies in a search for randomised controlled trials and systematic reviews published between 1 August 2014 and 15 February 2018.
See appendix A: summary of evidence from surveillance for details of all evidence considered, and references.
Selecting relevant studies
During the original guideline development, studies from the US and Asia were excluded because of time constraints. Studies were included if they were implemented in the UK, the rest of Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. During surveillance, we included studies from all countries because this was the original intention during guideline development. With the exception of this change, the inclusion and exclusion criteria from the original guideline were applied during study selection.
Ongoing research
We checked for relevant ongoing research: 4 studies were assessed as having the potential to change recommendations. Therefore we plan to regularly check whether these studies have published results, and evaluate the impact of the results on current recommendations as quickly as possible. These studies are:
Intelligence gathered during surveillance
Views of topic experts
We sent questionnaires to 14 topic experts and received 6 responses. The topic experts participated in the guideline committee who developed the guideline.
Four of the topic experts felt that the guideline is in need of an update, whereas 2 felt that an update was not needed. The main areas that they highlighted for update included new workplace interventions to tackle sedentary behaviour and a need to make the guideline more intervention-focused.
See appendix A: summary of evidence from surveillance for details of how these concerns have been addressed.
Views of voluntary and community sector organisations
For this surveillance review, 1 voluntary and community sector organisation completed a questionnaire about developments in evidence, policy and services related to the guideline. Feedback from the questionnaire indicated that they felt the guideline should be updated to include more consideration of behavioural mechanisms to increase physical activity in the workplace, such as the use of workplace champions.
See appendix A: summary of evidence from surveillance for details of how this concern has been addressed.
Views of stakeholders
Stakeholders are consulted on all surveillance decisions except if the whole guideline will be updated and replaced. Because this surveillance decision was to not update the guideline, we consulted on the decision.
Overall, 2 stakeholders commented. Both stakeholders agreed with the decision to not update the guideline and provided no further comments.
See appendix B for full details of stakeholders' comments and our responses.
See ensuring that published guidelines are current and accurate in developing NICE guidelines: the manual for more details on our consultation processes.
Editorial amendments
During surveillance of the guideline we identified the following points in the guideline that should be amended.
There is a cross referral in recommendation 3 to NICE guideline PH8 which needs correcting. This guideline has been updated and replaced by NICE guideline NG90 (physical activity and the environment).
This page was last updated: