Claims of ‘no difference’or ‘no effect’in Cochrane and other systematic reviews

Ref ID 521
First Author P. R. M. Smith
Journal BMJ EVIDENCE-BASED MEDICINE
Year Of Publishing 2020
URL https://ebm.bmj.com/content/early/2020/03/10/bmjebm-2019-111257
Keywords Cochrane
Author
Inference
General medical
Problem(s) Incorrect interpretation or statistical inference error from meta-analysis
Number of systematic reviews included 678
Summary of Findings 'No difference/no effect' was incorrectly claimed in the abstracts of 7.8% Cochrane reviews and in the abstracts of 6.0% other systematic reviews. Incorrect claims of no difference/no effect of treatments were substantially less common in Cochrane reviews published in in 2017 than they were in a study of abstracts of reviews published in 2001/2002 (Alderson P, Chalmers I. Survey of claims of no effect in Abstracts of Cochrane reviews. BMJ 2003;326:475–6).
Did the article find that the problem(s) led to qualitative changes in interpretation of the results? Yes
Are the methods of the article described in enough detail to replicate the study? No