Time-to-update of systematic reviews relative to the availability of new evidence.

ABSTRACT:

Background

A number of methods for deciding when a systematic review should be updated have been proposed, yet little is known about whether systematic reviews are updated more quickly when new evidence becomes available. Our aim was to examine the timing of systematic review updates relative to the availability of new evidence.

Methods

We performed a retrospective analysis of the update timing of systematic reviews published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews in 2010 relative to the availability of new trial evidence. We compared the update timing of systematic reviews with and without signals defined by the completion or publication of studies that were included in the updates.

Results

We found 43% (293/682) systematic reviews were updated before June 20

SUBMITTER: Bashir R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6240262 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature