Recognition of the need for evidence-based interventions to help to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of humanitarian responses has been increasing. However, little is known about the breadth and quality of evidence on health interventions in humanitarian crises. We describe the findings of a systematic review with the aim of examining the quantity and quality of evidence on public health interventions in humanitarian crises to identify key research gaps. We identified 345 studies published between 1980 and 2014 that met our inclusion criteria. The quantity of evidence varied substantially by health topic, from communicable diseases (n=131), nutrition (n=77), to non-communicable diseases (n=8), and water, sanitation, and hygiene (n=6). We observed common study design and weaknesses in the methods, which substantially reduced the ability to determine causation and attribution of the interventions. Considering the major increase in health-related humanitarian activities in the past three decades and calls for a stronger evidence base, this paper highlights the limited quantity and quality of health intervention research in humanitarian contexts and supports calls to scale up this research.

人们日益认识到需要采取循证干预措施来帮助提高人道主义对策的效力和效率。但是，关于人道主义危机中的卫生干预措施的证据的广度和质量知之甚少。我们描述了系统评价的结果，目的是检查有关人道主义危机中公共卫生干预措施的证据的数量和质量，以找出关键的研究差距。我们确定了1980年至2014年之间发表的345项符合纳入标准的研究。证据的数量因健康主题而异，从传染病（n = 131），营养（n = 77）到非传染病（n = 8）以及水，卫生和卫生（n = 6）。我们观察到了常见的研究设计和方法的缺点，这大大降低了确定干预因素和归因的能力。考虑到过去三十年来与健康相关的人道主义活动的大量增加，并呼吁建立更强大的证据基础，本文着重强调了人道主义背景下健康干预研究的数量和质量有限，并支持扩大研究规模的呼吁。