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. 2023 Sep 20;31(1):38.
doi: 10.1186/s12998-023-00501-4.

A guide to evaluating systematic reviews for the busy clinicians or reluctant readers

Stanley Innes  1 , Charlotte Leboeuf-Yde  2
Affiliations

A guide to evaluating systematic reviews for the busy clinicians or reluctant readers

Stanley Innes et al. Chiropr Man Therap. .

Abstract

Systematic reviews (SRs) provide a solution to handle information overload for busy clinicians by summarising and synthesizing studies on a specific issue. However, because SRs are complicated and often boring to read, the busy or reluctant reader may make do with the abstract. When, as it has been shown, many authors overstate efficacy or understate harm in their abstracts, not consulting the underlying article could be misleading. This means that the prudent reader must have the ability to identify the 'tender points' of SRs to avoid falling for 'spin'. To this end we briefly review the method of SRs and ways to relatively quickly determine trustworthiness.

Keywords: Evaluation studies; Evidence-based medicine; Health personnel; Information literacy; Systematic review.

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Conflict of interest statement

None.

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