Authors seldom report the most patient-important outcomes and absolute effect measures in systematic review abstracts

Ref ID 358
First Author A. Agarwal
Journal JOURNAL OF CLINICAL EPIDEMIOLOGY
Year Of Publishing 2017
URL https://www.jclinepi.com/article/S0895-4356(16)30358-4/fulltext
Keywords • General medical
• Abstract / summary
• Cochrane
• Outcomes
Problem(s) • Failure to define clinically meaningful outcomes
Article Type Empirical
Article Subtype Cross-sectional survey/Methodological systematic review
First Author Country Canada
Aim To assess the extent to which the most patient important outcomes are reported in the full texts and abstracts of 96 Cochrane and 94 non-Cochrane reviews published in 2010 and to examine the extent to which absolute effects are reported for patient important outcomes.
Level of Investigation Descriptive
Summary of Findings 77.5% of relative measures were reported in abstracts for outcomes of benefit, whereas only 22.5% absolute measures were reported. Similarly, for outcomes of harm, 87.2% of relative measures were provided in abstracts, compared with only 12.8% of absolute measures. 9.5% of abstracts reported both absolute and relative measures for outcomes of benefit, whereas only 1.1% of abstracts reported both measures for outcomes of harm. Results were similar between Cochrane and non-Cochrane reviews.
Number of systematic reviews included 190
Number of eligible systematic reviews assessed 2278
Treatment impacted No
Treatment impacted description
Interpretation impacted Not Applicable
Interpretation impacted description