Journal impact factor is associated with PRISMA endorsement, but not with the methodological quality of low back pain systematic reviews: a methodological review

Ref ID 280
First Author D. P. Nascimento
Journal EUROPEAN SPINE JOURNAL
Year Of Publishing 2020
URL https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00586-019-06206-8.pdf
Keywords • Pain
• Physiotherapy
• Publication bias
• Expertise
• Statistical
• Protocols
• Heterogeneity
• Low reporting quality
• Searching
• Risk of bias
Problem(s) • Insufficient literature searches
• Reasons for excluding potentially eligible studies not provided
• Single reviewer / lack of double checking
• Individual study characteristics not reported sufficiently
• Inadequate analysis of heterogeneity
• Poor consideration of publication bias
• Lack of statistical expertise in handling of quantitative data
• Limited quality assessment or no risk of bias
• No registered or published protocol
• Flawed risk of bias undertaken
• Low methodological (AMSTAR) quality
• Following guidelines is no guarantee of a rigorous systematic review
Number of systematic reviews included 66
Summary of Findings The methodological quality of 75.8% systematic reviews was critically low. Journals with higher impact factor were associated with journals endorsing the PRISMA recommendations but were not associated with the reviews’ methodological quality using AMSTAR 2.
Did the article find that the problem(s) led to qualitative changes in interpretation of the results? N/A
Are the methods of the article described in enough detail to replicate the study? No