The Reporting and Methodological Quality of Systematic Reviews Underpinning Clinical Practice Guidelines Focused on the Management of Cutaneous Melanoma: Cross-Sectional Analysis

Ref ID 1030
First Author M. Khalid
Journal JMIR DERMATOLOGY
Year Of Publishing 2023
URL https://derma.jmir.org/2023/1/e43821
Keywords • Low methodological quality
• Non-Cochrane reviews
• Dermatology
• Cochrane
• Low reporting quality
• Oncology
Problem(s) • Cochrane reviews more rigorous/higher quality than non-Cochrane reviews
• Low methodological (AMSTAR) quality
• Low reporting (PRISMA) quality
Article Type Empirical
Article Subtype Cross-sectional survey/Methodological systematic review
First Author Country United States
Checklists • PRISMA 2009
• AMSTAR 2
Aim To appraise the methodological and reporting quality of the systematic reviews (SRs) indexed in PubMed between January 1, 2015, and May 21, 2021 and used in clinical practice guidelines for cutaneous melanoma and evaluate differences in these outcomes between Cochrane and non-Cochrane reviews.
Level of Investigation Descriptive
Summary of Findings The majority of SRs indexed in PubMed between January 1, 2015, and May 21, 2021 and used in clinical practice guidelines for cutaneous melanoma (19/50, 53%) were of critically low methodological quality assessed using AMSTAR 2, with no SRs being appraised as high quality. There was a statistically significant association (P<.001) between AMSTAR and PRISMA checklists. Of the total 50 SRs, 4 (8%) were Cochrane reviews. Cochrane SRs had a mean PRISMA completion of 84.7% (SD 2.1%) compared to 64.9% (SD 11.5%) among non-Cochrane studies. Cochrane SRs also had a higher mean AMSTAR completion (mean 86.8%, SD 4.9%) compared to non-Cochrane SRs (mean 40.0%, SD 15.1%).
Number of systematic reviews included 50
Number of eligible systematic reviews assessed 4987
Treatment impacted Not Applicable
Treatment impacted description
Interpretation impacted Not Applicable
Interpretation impacted description