Frequent inappropriate use of unweighted summary statistics in systematic reviews of pathogen genotypes or genogroups

Ref ID 584
First Author L. Tran
Journal JOURNAL OF CLINICAL EPIDEMIOLOGY
Year Of Publishing 2020
URL https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0895435619305761
Keywords Statistical
Error
Epidemiology
Problem(s) Errors in effect estimate calculations or data synthesis
Poor execution of narrative synthesis
Number of systematic reviews included 36
Summary of Findings Nearly half of the investigated systematic review articles used simple descriptive analysis of study-level measures, rather than weighted meta-analysis methods. These articles had significantly lower reporting quality score (AMSTAR and PRISMA) compared with those using meta-analysis.
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