Caution should be exercised when assessing ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19 in systematic reviews

Ref ID	862
First Author	J. Deng
Journal	REVIEWS IN MEDICAL VIROLOGY
Year Of Publishing	2022
URL	https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/rmv.2317
Keywords	• Certainty • Retraction • Non-Cochrane reviews • Expertise • Pre-specification • Risk of bias • Low reporting quality • Subgroup • Statistical • Pharmacological • Protocols • COVID
Problem(s)	• Perpetuates citation of poor quality primary study data • Interpreted without considering certainty or overall quality of the evidence base • Undocumented or unjustified deviations to the review protocol • Unplanned or unjustified subgroup or sensitivity analyses • Lack of statistical expertise in handling of quantitative data • Flawed risk of bias undertaken • Low reporting or methodological quality (OTHER GUIDANCE)
Number of systematic reviews included	1
Summary of Findings	From a letter highlighting several limitations in the methodology and conduct of a systematic review on the efficacy of ivermectin treatment in COVID-19 patients published in 2021. The author of the letter highlighted several areas of concern: lack of clarity about whether the Jadad tool was utilized correctly or provided a valid assessment to measure risk of bias in studies; no GRADE assessment on the confidence of their findings as required by PRISMA; tests were not perfomed for normality using established methods prior to proceeding with the imputation; some outcomes and subgroup analyses were not outlined on the PROSPERO registration; 9 out of 18 of the included studies were pre-print articles and included retracted studies.
Did the article find that the problem(s) led to qualitative changes in interpretation of the results?	N/A
Are the methods of the article described in enough detail to replicate the study?	N/A