Ognjen Barcot1, Svjetlana Dosenovic2, Matija Boric1, Tina Poklepovic Pericic3, Marija Cavar4, Antonia Jelicic Kadic5, Livia Puljak6. 1. Department of Abdominal Surgery, University Hospital Split, Split, Croatia. 2. Department of Anesthesiology & Intensive Care, University Hospital Split, Croatia. 3. Department of Research in Biomedicine & Health, University of Split School of Medicine, Split, Croatia. 4. Department of Radiology, University Hospital Split, Split, Croatia. 5. Department of Pediatrics, University Hospital Split, Split, Croatia. 6. Center for Evidence-Based Medicine & Health Care, Catholic University of Croatia, Zagreb, Croatia.
Abstract
Aim: Adequate judging of risk of bias (RoB) for blinding of outcome assessors (detection bias) is important for supporting highest level of evidence. Materials & methods: Judgments and supporting comments for detection bias were retrieved from RoB tables reported in Cochrane reviews. We categorized comments, and then compared judgment and supporting comment with instructions from the Cochrane Handbook. Results: We analyzed 8656 judgments for detection bias from 7626 trials included in 575 reviews. Overall, 1909 judgments (22%) were not in line with the Cochrane Handbook. In 9% of trials, the authors split the detection bias domain according to outcomes. Here, prevalence of inadequate judgments was 19%. Conclusion: Interventions to improve RoB assessments in systematic reviews should be explored.
Aim: Adequate judging of risk of bias (RoB) for blinding of outcome assessors (detection bias) is important for supporting highest level of evidence. Materials & methods: Judgments and supporting comments for detection bias were retrieved from RoB tables reported in Cochrane reviews. We categorized comments, and then compared judgment and supporting comment with instructions from the Cochrane Handbook. Results: We analyzed 8656 judgments for detection bias from 7626 trials included in 575 reviews. Overall, 1909 judgments (22%) were not in line with the Cochrane Handbook. In 9% of trials, the authors split the detection bias domain according to outcomes. Here, prevalence of inadequate judgments was 19%. Conclusion: Interventions to improve RoB assessments in systematic reviews should be explored.
Authors: Ognjen Barcot; Matija Boric; Svjetlana Dosenovic; Marija Cavar; Antonia Jelicic Kadic; Tina Poklepovic Pericic; Ivana Vukicevic; Ivana Vuka; Livia Puljak Journal: BMC Med Res Methodol Date: 2020-09-29 Impact factor: 4.615