A QQAQ assessment of the methodological quality of systematic reviews of China health policy

Article type
Authors
Zhao J1, He S1, Zhang F1, Tian JH2
1School of Public Health of Lanzhou University, China
2Evidence-Based Medicine Center, School of Basic Medical Sciences of Lanzhou University, China
Abstract
Background: More and more systematic reviews(SR) of China health policy have been published in Chinese and English journals recent years, which is very import for the health policy makers to make the right decision.

Objectives: To evaluate the methodological quality of SRs of China health policy by QQAQ.

Methods: An electronic literature search of all SRs of China healthy policy from inception to December 2012 was conducted using the following text and keywords in combination both MeSH terms and text words, the search strategy was (meta analysis OR meta analyses OR systematic review* OR overreview) AND (health or policy) in five databases. The methodological quality was assessed independently by two reviewers using the QQAQ.

Results: A total of 50 SRs were identified finally. Most reviews were compliant with the following items: findings of studies combined appropriately (100%), conclusions made by authors supported by analysis; almost none reviews were compliant with the following items: criteria used for assessing validity of included studies reported, Methods used to combine the findings of studies reported. The details were showed in Table 1.Whether the paper is CSCD or non-CSCD, funding or non-funding, published before 2007 or after 2008, written by less than two authors or more than three authors, seems to have little impact on the quality of the SRs. The reporting quality was poor. The details were described in Figure 1.

Conclusions: There is a growing increasing number of SRs of China health policy published in Chinese and English journals, however the methodological quality need to be further improved.