Assessment of methodological quality of primary studies by systematic reviews: results of the metaquality cross sectional study

Ref ID 700
First Author L.P. Moja
Journal BMJ
Year Of Publishing 2005
URL https://www.bmj.com/content/330/7499/1053
Keywords • Cochrane
• Certainty
• Risk of bias
Problem(s) • Interpreted without considering certainty or overall quality of the evidence base
• No quality assessment undertaken or reported
Article Type Empirical
Article Subtype Cross-sectional survey/Methodological systematic review
First Author Country Italy
Aim To assess how the methodological quality of primary studies was assessed in systematic reviews and whether the quality assessment was taken into account in the interpretation of results. Cochrane systematic reviews and systematic reviews in paper based journals. published between 1995 and 2002 were sampled.
Level of Investigation Descriptive
Summary of Findings Quality assessment was assessed in 88.5% of the reviews and was more often carried out in Cochrane reviews than in paper based reviews (93.9% v 60.3%). Only 51.4% used the quality assessment in the analysis and interpretation of the results or in their discussion, with no significant differences between Cochrane reviews and paper based reviews (52% v 49%).
Number of systematic reviews included 965
Number of eligible systematic reviews assessed 965
Treatment impacted No
Treatment impacted description
Interpretation impacted Not Applicable
Interpretation impacted description