In this issue we look at six substantial reviews of evidence on topics relevant to programming for children affected by HIV and related disadvantages: global health and development in early childhood; measures and indicators for assessing impact of early childhood development programmes; psychological interventions for perinatal depression by non-specialist health workers; caregiver behavior change; the prevalence of child maltreatment across the globe, and the role of mHealth and other media interventions to enhance child survival and development. Evidence reviews are important because they take stock of what is known across different contexts, using a range of methods in studies of varying quality. There are many different ways of doing evidence reviews, but all try to achieve the following: identify relevant evidence (usually published in peer-reviewed journals, but may include unpublished material); select studies for inclusion in the review; assess the quality of each study; synthesize findings in an unbiased way, and interpret the findings in a balanced way. As such, evidence reviews are helpful because they summarize large bodies of research and enable practitioners and others to ensure that their work is evidence-informed.
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