Eight Out of Every Ten Abstracts of Low Back Pain Systematic Reviews Presented Spin and Inconsistencies With the Full Text: An Analysis of 66 Systematic Reviews

Ref ID 278
First Author D. P. Nascimento
Journal JOURNAL OF ORTHOPAEDIC & SPORTS PHYSICAL THERAPY
Year Of Publishing 2020
URL https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31443622/
Keywords • Non-Cochrane reviews
• Error
• Cochrane
• Pain
• Physiotherapy
• Abstract / summary
• Spin
Problem(s) • Errors in systematic review abstracts or plain language summaries
• Spin or subjective interpretation of findings
• Low methodological (AMSTAR) quality
• Cochrane reviews more rigorous/higher quality than non-Cochrane reviews
Article Type Empirical
Article Subtype Cross-sectional survey/Methodological systematic review
First Author Country Brazil
Aim To assess whether abstracts of systematic reviews for low back pain published in the Physiotherapy Evidence Database published between 2015 and 2017 contained spin, whether the abstract consistently represented the full text and whether the spin in the abstracts was associated with the type of conclusion for review. Methodological quality (AMSTAR 2) of included review was also assessed.
Level of Investigation Descriptive
Summary of Findings From the 66 included (9 Cochrane and 57 Non-Cochrane) systematic reviews of low back pain, spin was determined as present in 80% of abstracts using a 7-item checklist and kappa coefficient analysis. Non-Cochrane review abstracts were not consistent with the main text but Cochrane reviews had good consistency. AMSTAR2 was critically low for 76% (n=56) reviews and Cochrane reviews had higher quality rating than non-Cochrane reviews. However, Cochrane reviews that were republished in other journals had lower AMSTAR2 rating scores and presented examples of spin in the abstracts that were not present in the corresponding Cochrane review abstract.
Number of systematic reviews included 66
Number of eligible systematic reviews assessed 7526
Treatment impacted Yes
Treatment impacted description
Interpretation impacted No
Interpretation impacted description