Retracted randomized controlled trials were cited and not corrected in systematic reviews and clinical practice guidelines

Ref ID 879
First Author Y. Kataoka
Journal JOURNAL OF CLINICAL EPIDEMIOLOGY
Year Of Publishing 2022
URL https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0895435622001664?via%3Dihub
Keywords • General medical
• Non-Cochrane reviews
• Retraction
Problem(s) • Perpetuates citation of poor quality primary study data
Article Type Empirical
Article Subtype Cross-sectional survey/Methodological systematic review
First Author Country Japan
Aim To investigate whether and when Systematic Reviews and Clinical Practice Guidelines are corrected when included Randomized Controlled Trials have been retracted.
Level of Investigation Descriptive
Summary of Findings From 525 included systematic reviews from the Retraction Watch Database searched on July 27 2021. Among a larger sample of 587 included systematic reviews and clinical practice guidelines, 252 (43%) were published after retraction, and 335 (57%) were published before retraction. Among 127 systematic reviews published citing already retracted RCTs in their evidence synthesis, none corrected themselves after publication. Of 335 articles published before retraction, 239 included RCTs that were later retracted in their evidence synthesis. Among them, only 5% of Systematic Reviews (9/196) and 5% of Clinical Practice Guidelines (2/43) corrected or retracted their results.
Number of systematic reviews included 525
Number of eligible systematic reviews assessed 6951
Treatment impacted No
Treatment impacted description
Interpretation impacted Not Applicable
Interpretation impacted description