Quality of reviews in epidemiology.
review · Level V
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 9518988.
- Also identified by PMC identifier 1508358.
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Abstract
This study examined the quality of recent reviews in epidemiology. All 1995 issues of 7 widely read epidemiology journals were searched to identify reviews. Twenty-nine reviews were identified. Methodology was not specified or incomplete for literature searches in 79% of reviews; the same was true for inclusion criteria in 83% and for combining studies in 62%. More than 60% of the reviews were not methodologically systematic. There is a need to improve the quality of review papers in epidemiology. If systematic methodology were followed more frequently, epidemiologic science and its application could be improved.
Medical subject headings
- Epidemiology
- Review Literature as Topic