Reliability of the Evidence Addressing Treatment of Corneal Diseases: A Summary of Systematic Reviews

Ref ID 100
First Author I. J. Saldanha
Journal JAMA OPHTHALMOLOGY
Year Of Publishing 2019
URL https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaophthalmology/articlepdf/2732698/jamaophthalmology_saldanha_2019_oi_190021.pdf
Keywords • Ophthalmology
• Cochrane
• Risk of bias
• Searching
• Error
Problem(s) • Insufficient literature searches
• Errors in effect estimate calculations or data synthesis
• Limited quality assessment or no risk of bias
Article Type Empirical
Article Subtype Cross-sectional survey/Methodological systematic review
First Author Country Australia
Aim To assess the assess the reliability according to (pre-specification of eligibility criteria; comprehensive searches; risk of bias assessment; appropriate data synthesis methods; and validity of conclusions for Cochrane reviews of interventions for corneal diseases, published from 1997 to 2017.
Level of Investigation Descriptive
Summary of Findings Thirty-three of the included 98 systematic reviews (34%) were classified as unreliable. The most frequent reasons for unreliability were that the systematic review did not conduct a comprehensive literature search for studies (22 of 33 [67%]), did not assess risk of bias of the individual included studies (13 of 33 [39%]), and did not use appropriate methods for quantitative syntheses (meta-analysis) (12 of 17 systematic reviews that conducted a quantitative synthesis [71%]).
Number of systematic reviews included 98
Number of eligible systematic reviews assessed 3777
Treatment impacted No
Treatment impacted description
Interpretation impacted Not Applicable
Interpretation impacted description