Assessments of risk of bias in systematic reviews of observational nutritional epidemiologic studies are often not appropriate or comprehensive: a methodological study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

An essential component of systematic reviews is the assessment of risk of bias. To date, there has been no investigation of how reviews of non-randomised studies of nutritional exposures (called 'nutritional epidemiologic studies') assess risk of bias.

Objective

To describe methods for the assessment of risk of bias in reviews of nutritional epidemiologic studies.

Methods

We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (Jan 2018-Aug 2019) and sampled 150 systematic reviews of nutritional epidemiologic studies.

Results

Most reviews (n=131/150; 87.3%) attempted to assess risk of bias. Commonly used tools neglected to address all important sources of bias, such as selective reporting (n=25/28; 89.3%), and frequently included

SUBMITTER: Zeraatkar D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8718856 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature