Year: 2016
Type: editorial
Abstract: Systematic reviews provide Level 1 evidence.They are firmly part of modern medical practice.Ideally, systematic reviews provide readers with comprehensive evidence summaries and can highlight research deficiencies.Busy clinicians welcome bite sized summaries to inform their practice.As part of BJSM's Education theme, we address the question 'Should I trust this systematic review?'. SYSTEMATIC REVIEWS ARE ONLY AS GOOD AS THE PAPERS THEY CONTAINMeta-analysis is the highest level of evidence, but the quality of any systematic review or meta-analysis is only as good as the studies identified and included.Summarising papers with a high risk of bias does not eliminate this bias.Pooling data (meta-analysis) from papers with a high risk of bias actually compounds the bias. 1 These basic facts are often underappreciated and overlooked.
Authors: Adam Weir, Safia Rabia, Clare Ardern
Institution: Qatar Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital
Language: English
Subfield: Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty
Field: Decision Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2337542755