Risk of Bias and Methodological Critical Appraisal in Systematic Reviews of Non- and Micro-Invasive Caries Management for Primary and Permanent Teeth

Ref ID 1032
First Author C.M. Laux
Journal CARIES RESEARCH
Year Of Publishing 2024
URL https://karger.com/cre/article/58/5/469/898537/Risk-of-Bias-and-Methodological-Critical-Appraisal
Keywords • Paediatrics
• Low methodological quality
• Dentistry
• Non-Cochrane reviews
• Publication bias
• Protocols
Problem(s) • Poor consideration of publication bias
• Risk of bias not incorporated into conclusions of review
• No registered or published protocol
• Low methodological (AMSTAR) quality
Article Type Empirical
Article Subtype Cross-sectional survey/Methodological systematic review
First Author Country Brazil
Checklists • AMSTAR 2
• ROBIS
Aim To systematically investigate and evaluate the methodological quality and risk of bias in systematic reviews (SRs) indexed in 5 electronic databases, including PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Embase, and Web of Science, up to March 2023, related to non- and micro-invasive treatment options for caries lesions in primary and permanent teeth in children and adolescents.
Level of Investigation Descriptive
Summary of Findings From 39 systematic reviews (SRs) indexed in 5 electronic databases, including PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Embase, and Web of Science, up to March 2023. Of the 39 the included reviews, the majority (27, 69.2%) were rated as having critically low methodological quality using AMSTAR 2. Only one study (2.6%) attained a high methodological quality rating. The most prevalent critical domain flaw was the lack of a prospectively registered protocol observed in 33 (84.6%) of the included reviews. In addition, 21 (53.8%) of the included reviews did not comprehensively report assessing the presence and impact of publication bias. Almost half of the reviews did not consider the risk of bias when interpreting their results (48.7%). The ROBIS assessments showed that the majority of reviews (21, 53.8%) were categorised as low risk of bias while reviews were classified as unclear (20.5%) and high (25.6%).
Number of systematic reviews included 39
Number of eligible systematic reviews assessed 502
Treatment impacted Not Applicable
Treatment impacted description
Interpretation impacted Not Applicable
Interpretation impacted description