Assessment of publication bias and outcome reporting bias in systematic reviews of health services and delivery research: A meta-epidemiological study.

ABSTRACT: Strategies to identify and mitigate publication bias and outcome reporting bias are frequently adopted in systematic reviews of clinical interventions but it is not clear how often these are applied in systematic reviews relating to quantitative health services and delivery research (HSDR). We examined whether these biases are mentioned and/or otherwise assessed in HSDR systematic reviews, and evaluated associating factors to inform future practice. We randomly selected 200 quantitative HSDR systematic reviews published in the English language from 2007-2017 from the Health Systems Evidence database (www.healthsystemsevidence.org). We extracted data on factors that may influence whether or not authors mention and/or assess publication bias or outcome reporting bias. We found that 43% (n =

SUBMITTER: Ayorinde AA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6992172 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature