Article type
Year
Abstract
Background: As a developing country with a relative lack of medical resources, for patients in China it is very important that early screening and diagnosis is being carried out.
Objective: To describe the current status and production to date of meta-analyses and systematic reviews of screening tests in China.
Methods: We searched three main medical databases from 1978 to 2011: CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure), VIP (a Chinese full text database) and CBM (China Biomedicine Database). We used the following search strategy: (diagnostic accuracy OR screen OR sensitivity OR specificity) AND (systematic review OR meta-analysis).
Results: We searched 1496 potentially relevant papers, nine studies met the inclusion criteria. The first meta-analysis of a screening test was reported in 2002. Five studies reported reference standard. For sensitivity and specificity analysis, the summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) was the preferred method for analysis in eight studies, only two studies used QUADAS tool. Five studies reported the sensitivity analysis and heterogeneity analysis. Meta-disc was the most used statistical analysis software (44.4% of all studies). Cancer was the most common target disorder examined (44.4%). Only one study clearly reported financial conflicts of interest. Two studies were published in profesional evidence based medicine journals (Chinese journal of evidence based medicine, Chinese journal of evidence-based pediatric).
Conclusion: The dissemination and production of the meta-analyses and systematic reviews of screening test research in China needs to be improved, especially in the methodological quality and conflict of interest reported. We would like to suggest that firstly: researchers should conduct systematic reviews of diagnostic test accuracy according to the Cochrane Screening and Diagnostic Tests Methods Groupás requirements regarding format as much as possible; secondly, as a non-native English-speaking country, more monographs and research about screening tests translated into Chinese is needed.
Objective: To describe the current status and production to date of meta-analyses and systematic reviews of screening tests in China.
Methods: We searched three main medical databases from 1978 to 2011: CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure), VIP (a Chinese full text database) and CBM (China Biomedicine Database). We used the following search strategy: (diagnostic accuracy OR screen OR sensitivity OR specificity) AND (systematic review OR meta-analysis).
Results: We searched 1496 potentially relevant papers, nine studies met the inclusion criteria. The first meta-analysis of a screening test was reported in 2002. Five studies reported reference standard. For sensitivity and specificity analysis, the summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) was the preferred method for analysis in eight studies, only two studies used QUADAS tool. Five studies reported the sensitivity analysis and heterogeneity analysis. Meta-disc was the most used statistical analysis software (44.4% of all studies). Cancer was the most common target disorder examined (44.4%). Only one study clearly reported financial conflicts of interest. Two studies were published in profesional evidence based medicine journals (Chinese journal of evidence based medicine, Chinese journal of evidence-based pediatric).
Conclusion: The dissemination and production of the meta-analyses and systematic reviews of screening test research in China needs to be improved, especially in the methodological quality and conflict of interest reported. We would like to suggest that firstly: researchers should conduct systematic reviews of diagnostic test accuracy according to the Cochrane Screening and Diagnostic Tests Methods Groupás requirements regarding format as much as possible; secondly, as a non-native English-speaking country, more monographs and research about screening tests translated into Chinese is needed.