Need for quality improvement in renal systematic reviews

Ref ID 180
First Author M. Mrkobrada
Journal CLINICAL JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF NEPHROLOGY
Year Of Publishing 2008
URL https://cjasn.asnjournals.org/content/clinjasn/3/4/1102.full.pdf
Keywords • Nephrology
• Pre-specification
• Risk of bias
• Low reporting quality
• Single reviewer
Problem(s) • Low reporting or methodological quality (OTHER GUIDANCE)
• Single reviewer / lack of double checking
• Lack of prespecification in eligibility criteria
• No quality assessment undertaken or reported
• Funding or sponsor of systematic review not reported
Article Type Empirical
Article Subtype Cross-sectional survey/Methodological systematic review
First Author Country United Kingdom
Checklists • OQAQ
Aim To assess the methodological quality (OQAQ) of renal systematic reviews published across several databases in 2005.
Level of Investigation Analytical
Summary of Findings Of the 90 included renal systematic reviews published across several databases in 2005, the average OQAQ score was 6 (out of 9). Major methodologic flaws included (44/90; 40%) failure to assess the methodologic quality included studies. 51 of 90 (57%) reviews failed to show evidence that they attempted to minimize their bias during the process of selection of studies for analysis by having only one person select eligible studies, or they lacked a priori criteria for inclusion. Factors that were independently associated with higher methodologic quality were a lack of language restriction in the literature search, an attempt to contact primary study authors, and an explicit statement regarding sources of funding.
Number of systematic reviews included 90
Number of eligible systematic reviews assessed 591
Treatment impacted No
Treatment impacted description
Interpretation impacted Not Applicable
Interpretation impacted description