Outcomes in systematic reviews of complex interventions never reached “high” GRADE ratings when compared with those of simple interventions

Ref ID 604
First Author A. Movsisyan
Journal JOURNAL OF CLINICAL EPIDEMIOLOGY
Year Of Publishing 2016
URL https://www.jclinepi.com/article/S0895-4356(16)30026-9/abstract
Keywords • Imprecision
• General medical
Problem(s) • Inflexible methods to complex questions
Article Type Empirical
Article Subtype Cross-sectional survey/Methodological systematic review
First Author Country United Kingdom
Aim To assess the application of the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) approach and the quality of evidence ratings in Cochrane systematic reviews of complex interventions conducted 2013-2014.
Level of Investigation Descriptive
Summary of Findings The quality of evidence never reached ‘‘high’’ GRADE ratings for the outcomes of complex intervention reviews, compared to simple intervention reviews. Quality ratings were commonly downgraded in the Risk of Bias assessment, particularly for lack of participant and personnel blinding; high levels of heterogeneity, and the study design
Number of systematic reviews included 40
Number of eligible systematic reviews assessed 279
Treatment impacted No
Treatment impacted description
Interpretation impacted Not Applicable
Interpretation impacted description