Registration of systematic reviews in PROSPERO: 30,000 records and counting

Ref ID 511
First Author M. J. Page
Journal SYSTEMATIC REVIEWS
Year Of Publishing 2018
URL https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5819709/pdf/13643_2018_Article_699.pdf
Keywords • General medical
• Pre-specification
• Multiplicity
• Protocols
Problem(s) • Multiplicity of outcomes and lack of pre-specification for outcome reporting
Article Type Empirical
Article Subtype Cross-sectional survey/Methodological systematic review
First Author Country Australia
Aim To assess the number of PROSPERO registrations and website usage from inception to 2017. Epidemiological characteristics of and completeness of primary outcome pre-specification in a random sample of 150 PROSPERO records.
Level of Investigation Descriptive
Summary of Findings There was a 10-fold increase in registrations between 2012 (63 systematic reviews per month) to 2017 (800 per month). No information about the primary outcome other than the domain (e.g. timing, effect measures) was pre-specified in 29% of records.
Number of systematic reviews included 150
Number of eligible systematic reviews assessed 26535
Treatment impacted No
Treatment impacted description
Interpretation impacted Not Applicable
Interpretation impacted description