The reporting of safety among drug systematic reviews was poor before the implementation of the PRISMA harms checklist

Ref ID 339
First Author L. Li
Journal JOURNAL OF CLINICAL EPIDEMIOLOGY
Year Of Publishing 2019
URL https://www.jclinepi.com/article/S0895-4356(18)30704-2/fulltext
Keywords • Harms
• Cochrane
• Low reporting quality
Problem(s) • Selective reporting of harms / safety / adverse events / side effects
• Low reporting (PRISMA) quality
Article Type Empirical
Article Subtype Cross-sectional survey/Methodological systematic review
First Author Country China
Checklists • PRISMA-Harms
Aim To assess how well safety information was reported among drug systematic reviews (Cochrane and non-Cochrane) published in 2015, predating PRISMA harms checklist, and explore factors associated with better reporting.
Level of Investigation Descriptive
Summary of Findings Scores on the PRISMA harms were low (median 4, [first, third quartile: 2, 6]), with no difference between Cochrane and non-Cochrane reviews (4.5 [2, 7] vs. 4 [2.5, 5]; P 5 0.29). Among all eligible reviews, only one item (i.e., state conclusions in coherence with the review findings) was reported adequately (81.6%); proportion of reporting for other items ranged from 1.7% to 68.3%. The four essential reporting items from PRISMA harms checklist were also poorly complied (proportion of adherence ranged from 1.7% to 9.2%). Multivariable linear regression analyses found no significant associations between any study characteristic and reporting on the PRISMA harms, likely because of limited variability in scores across studies.
Number of systematic reviews included 120
Number of eligible systematic reviews assessed 3881
Treatment impacted No
Treatment impacted description
Interpretation impacted Not Applicable
Interpretation impacted description