Background:
Different strategies on health human resources problems are implemented in both developed and developing countries. High quality evidence is needed to share between countries.

Objectives:
To assess the methodological quality of systematic reviews in public health policy.

Methods:
An overview of systematic reviews of public health policy was conducted in 2013. The topic focused on health human resources. We searched 14 electronic databases and websites, two researchers conducted the screening, data extraction and quality assessment independently. A Measurement Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews (AMSTAR) was used to assess the methodological quality of the included studies.

Results:
In total 80 systematic reviews about health human resources were included in this overview.
1. Characteristics of the included systematic reviews: most of the studies (86.25%) were conducted in developed countries; 17 Cochrane systematic reviews were included;
2. Topic distribution: all the included systematic reviews were categorized into four main themes, four were about the recruitment of students’ education, two were about position support, four were about economic incentives and others were organization management strategies.
3. Quality assessment by AMSTAR: three levels of quality were identified, scores between 0 and 4.5 denoted low quality, scores between 5 and 8.5 denoted intermediate quality, scores between 9 and 11 denoted high quality. For the included systematic reviews, the highest score was 10.5, the lowest score was 3, the average score was 7.168 ± 1.779; intermediate quality systematic reviews were 55 (68.75%), high quality systematic reviews were 19 (23.75%) and six systematic reviews scored less than 5. Analysis of the 11 items of AMSTAR showed that item 3, item 6, item 9 and item 11 met the criteria better and other required items were not conducted well.

Conclusions:
Methodological quality of systematic reviews in public health policy need to be improved, especially for developing countries.