Quality Assessment Tools for Systematic Reviews – DistillerSR

A systematic review attempts to identify, summarize, and analyze the results of all relevant literature to answer a focused research question while using strategies to limit bias and random error. Systematic reviews are used as evidence to guide healthcare decisions, making them an important tool in evidence-based practice. This brings us to the question – why are systematic reviews important for evidence-based practice

Systematic reviews, with or without meta-analysis are considered the highest level of evidence in medical literature [1]. There are different types of systematic reviews designed to help answer various research questions. For example, to answer broad questions, and identify key concepts in a research area, systematic scoping reviews are employed. For guidance on conducting systematic scoping reviews, you can learn more at the link provided. Since the intended purpose of a scoping systematic review is to gather information as opposed to recommending a clinical practice, quality assessment is either not undertaken or is not as stringent as in the case of a typical systematic review.

As systematic reviews are considered the highest form of evidence, conducting a thorough quality assessment of the study is required. In this article, we will look at the quality assessment tools which can be used to assess the internal validity of a systematic review.

What Is Quality Assessment and Why Is It Important?

Quality assessment is also known as quality appraisal, critical appraisal, and risk of bias assessment, with the terms sometimes being used interchangeably. They refer to the assessment of the methodological quality, and rigor of the trials or studies included in a systematic review. Although systematic reviews are designed in a way to produce robust, reliable, and reproducible results, they are still open to biases and errors. Errors in the study design and implementation have the potential to bias the results in favor of one intervention over the others. Given the importance of systematic reviews in evidence-based medicine, we need to be aware of these biases. Quality assessment, therefore, helps in minimizing the risk of bias and increases confidence in review findings.

Assessing the quality of evidence of findings from a systematic review is as critical as the data analysis process. Studies that are conducted poorly are usually skewed; the critical appraisal procedure allows researchers to interpret them with caution.