The impact of different inclusion decisions on the comprehensiveness and complexity of overviews of reviews of healthcare interventions.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Overviews of reviews (overviews) compile information from multiple systematic reviews (SRs) to provide a single synthesis of relevant evidence for decision-making. Overviews may identify multiple SRs that examine the same intervention for the same condition and include some, but not all, of the same primary studies. There is currently limited guidance on whether and how to include these overlapping SRs in overviews. Our objectives were to assess how different inclusion decisions in overviews of healthcare interventions affect their comprehensiveness and results, and document challenges encountered when making different inclusion decisions in overviews.

Methods

We used five inclusion decisions to conduct overviews across seven topic areas, resulting in 35 overviews

SUBMITTER: Pollock M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6329144 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature