| Ref ID | 451 |
| First Author | L. Rosen |
| Journal | BMC MEDICAL RESEARCH METHODOLOGY |
| Year Of Publishing | 2016 |
| URL | https://bmcmedresmethodol.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12874-016-0118-2.pdf |
| Keywords |
• Allegiance • Author • Public health • Spin • Overlapping reviews/redundancy • Missing data |
| Problem(s) |
• Errors in study inclusion or omission of relevant studies • Spin or subjective interpretation of findings • Following guidelines is no guarantee of a rigorous systematic review • Redundant / overlapping / duplicated review question; leads to research waste |
| Article Type | Empirical |
| Article Subtype | Case study |
| First Author Country | Israel |
| Checklists |
• AMSTAR 1 |
| Aim | To assess two systematic reviews on the same topic (prevention of child exposure to tobacco smoke) to understand why study cohorts and subsequently the findings differed in the two reviews. [The authors were authors on one of the included reviews.] |
| Level of Investigation | Descriptive |
| Summary of Findings | Both reviews performed well on methodological (AMSTAR) quality. Review conclusions differed for both primary and subgroup analyses and could be considered as discordant. Reasons included: differing inclusion criteria, omission of relevant studies, measurement of outcomes, differing requirements for quantitative data, and search issues, including how and which sources were searched. A minority of omissions resulted from discordant reviewer interpretations of identical inclusion criteria. |
| Number of systematic reviews included | 2 |
| Number of eligible systematic reviews assessed | 2 |