Quality of Cochrane reviews
BMJ 2002; 324 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.324.7336.545/a (Published 02 March 2002) Cite this as: BMJ 2002;324:545Quality of Cochrane reviews is better than that of non-Cochrane reviews
- Mark Petticrew, associate director (mark@msoc.mrc.gla.ac.uk),
- Paul Wilson, research fellow,
- Kath Wright, information scientist,
- Fujian Song, senior research fellow
- MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8RZ
- NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, University of York, York YO10 5DD
- Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT
- Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Clinical Research Unit, Princess Margaret Rose Orthopaedic Hospital, Edinburgh EH10 7ED
- East Riding and Hull Health Authority, Willerby, East Yorkshire HU10 6DT
EDITOR—Olsen et al assessed a sample of Cochrane reviews from 1998 and highlighted some areas where improvement is possible.1 They found that 29% of reviews had major problems, including inappropriate methods and conclusions. As they say, improvement is still possible, but this figure nevertheless represents a major improvement on the quality of non-Cochrane reviews.
We have reviewed the methods of 480 systematic reviews on the database of abstracts of reviews of effectiveness (DARE) at the University of York.2 3 Methodological details of the reviews were coded and checked by two reviewers working independently. We found that only half (52%) of the reviews had systematically assessed the validity of the included studies; that most systematic reviews were unlikely to be comprehensive (they had searched either one or two databases); and that overall only a quarter (26%) of reviews met three key methodological criteria (relating to a thorough …
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