Assessments of attrition bias in Cochrane systematic reviews are highly inconsistent and thus hindering trial comparability

Ref ID 444
First Author A. Babic
Journal BMC MEDICAL RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Year Of Publishing 2019
URL https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6451283/pdf/12874_2019_Article_717.pdf
Keywords Cochrane
Missing data
Risk of bias
General medical
Problem(s) Flawed risk of bias undertaken
Weaknesses identified in some Cochrane reviews
Number of systematic reviews included 729
Summary of Findings High inconsistency was found in the assessment of risk of bias related to incomplete outcome data, i.e. attrition bias in the included Cochrane reviews. Inconsistencies were found with the number of judgments, names of risk of bias domains and different judgments for the same supporting explanations, even within the same Cochrane review. One third of Cochrane review authors had more than one category of explanations; some had up to four different categories.
Did the article find that the problem(s) led to qualitative changes in interpretation of the results? Not Applicable
Are the methods of the article described in enough detail to replicate the study? Yes