Substantial heterogeneity found in reporting mortality in Cochrane systematic reviews and Core Outcome Sets in COMET database

Ref ID 913
First Author E. Tomlinson
Journal JOURNAL OF CLINICAL EPIDEMIOLOGY
Year Of Publishing 2022
URL https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0895435622000142?via%3Dihub
Keywords • Cochrane
• Outcomes
• Multiplicity
• Pre-specification
Problem(s) • Weaknesses identified in some Cochrane reviews
• Multiplicity of outcomes and lack of pre-specification for outcome reporting
Article Type Empirical
Article Subtype Cross-sectional survey/Methodological systematic review
First Author Country United Kingdom
Aim To explore mortality outcome usage in Cochrane systematic reviews and Core Outcome Sets for research.
Level of Investigation Descriptive
Summary of Findings From 1978 included Cochrane systematic reviews that included mortality as an outcome published January 2015-March 2021. There were 2,454 mortality outcomes were reported in 49% (1978/3999) of Cochrane reviews: all-cause (37%), infant (23%), maternal (11%), survival (10%), cause-specific (9%). Due to reviews not specifying mortality outcome type or including studies reporting no data, 11% (273/2208) remained uncategorized. Infant mortality and maternal mortality were frequently used together in reviews reporting two mortality outcomes.
Number of systematic reviews included 1978
Number of eligible systematic reviews assessed 2006
Treatment impacted No
Treatment impacted description
Interpretation impacted Not Applicable
Interpretation impacted description