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About ALOIS

What is ALOIS?
ALOIS was created and is maintained by the Cochrane Dementia and Cognitive Improvement Group. Uniquely, ALOIS is study-based: multiple references to the same trial are grouped together. ALOIS covers all randomised controlled trials of interventions:

  • for people with dementia
  • for people with cognitive impairment
  • for the improvement of, or prevention of decline in, cognitive function in healthy people

It was created in 2008 thanks to a grant from the Alzheimer's Association. It is a free open-access resource, available to anyone with an internet connection.

What is on ALOIS?
The register mainly contains records of RCTs (Randomized Controlled Trials) though there are also some CCTs (Controlled Clinical Trials) and some Open-label studies. For definitions of these study designs, see the Glossary. 

There are currently around 4250 studies on ALOIS (January 2011). We are working hard to make ALOIS as comprehensive as possible.

At present (January 2011) there are around 400 records on ALOIS that have a "record in process" status. These are old records that we are in the process of updating. In early 2008 we updated the way we code information about a trial in a study record. Seven new fields of information were added and certain coding conventions were changed (eg the terms used for the status of a trial). Therefore there were a lot of records that needed to be (and still need to be) brought up to the current standard. We are seeking volunteers who would like to help us in this task. Go to volunteer with us to find out more.

Who is ALOIS for? 
ALOIS is for anyone interested in trials being conducted in the area of dementia and cognitve improvement. However, we see our main potential users being:

  • Authors of systematic reviews (Cochrane and others)
  • Funders who want to know what research already exists (and where there are potential research gaps)
  • Researchers identifying gaps in the research and writing grant applications
  • Teachers of evidenced-based dementia care
  • Students of evidenced-based dementia care
  • Carers and clinicians who want easy and quick access to the evidence in this area

ALOIS aims to take away some of the most frustrating elements of trying to find trials in this area. It hopes to provide a platform that facilitates the critical assessment of trials and to encourage all parties interested in evidenced-based medicine in this subject to contribute their knowledge of studies to this EBM community resource.

How is ALOIS maintained?
This site is looked after by the Cochrane Dementia and Cognitive Improvement Group (CDCIG). This group is responsible for creating the search strategies to retrieve relevant reports of studies, running the searches, assessing the results and coding and uploading the study details onto the register. 

We are always on the lookout for willing and able volunteers to help us keep this resource up-to-date and accurate. If you are interested in volunteering some of your time and you possess some knowledge in this area, please do Contact us.
 
What sources are searched and how often are they searched?
The following databases are searched monthly:

  • Medline (Ovid SP)
  • Embase (Ovid SP)
  • PsycInfo (Ovid SP)
  • Cinahl (EBSCOhost)
  • Lilacs (Bireme)

The following trials registers are searched monthly:

National and international trials registers:

Pharmacetical industry trials registers:

The following grey literature sources are to be searched monthly from November 2009:

Can users contribute to the site?
Users can submit details of a trial if they think it is one of which we currently have no details. This can be done by clicking on the Submit a study. Once a user has entered the details of study and clicked submit, the details come first to us at CDCIG to check before being uploaded onto the site. We also welcome more general comments and questions about the site and how it could be improved. Simply click on Contact us to send us any general comments, questions or suggestions.   

Know of any studies NOT on ALOIS?

If you know of any studies that are not on ALOIS, then please do Contact us with details of the study. Alternatively you can enter the study details yourself: click here to enter details of an Intervention study; click here to enter details of a Diagnostic Test Accuracy study. For an explanation of what we mean by Intervention study and Diagnostic Test Accuracy study please refer to the Glossary.

 

Page last updated: 12 January 2011