Department of General Practice, Academic Medical Center (AMC), University of Amsterdam (UvA), PO Box 22700, 1100 DD Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Lab Anim. 2011 Oct;45(4):225-30. doi: 10.1258/la.2011.010121. Epub 2011 Jul 7.
In 2006, Peters et al. identified 86 systematic reviews (SRs) of laboratory animal experiments (LAEs). They found 46 LAE meta-analyses (MAs), often of poor quality. Six of these 46 MAs tried to assess publication bias. Publication bias is the phenomenon of an experiment's results determining its likelihood of publication, often over-representing positive findings. As such, publication bias is the Achilles heel of any SR. Since researchers increasingly become aware of the fact that SRs directly support the 'three Rs', we expect the number of SRs of LAEs will sharply increase. Therefore, it is useful to see how publication bias is dealt with. Our objective was to identify all SRs and MAs of LAEs where the purpose was to inform human health published between July 2005 and 2010 with special attention to MAs' quality features and publication bias. We systematically searched Medline, Embase, Toxline and ScienceDirect from July 2005 to 2010, updating Peters' review. LAEs not directly informing human health or concerning fundamental biology were excluded. We found 2780 references of which 163 met the inclusion criteria: 158 SRs, of which 30 performed an MA, and five MAs without an SR. The number of SRs roughly doubled every three years since 1997. The number of MAs roughly doubled every five years since 1999. Compared with before July 2005, more MAs were preceded by SR and reported on (quality) features of included studies and heterogeneity. A statistically significant proportion of MAs considered publication bias (26/35) and tried to formally assess it (21/35).
2006 年，Peters 等人鉴定了 86 篇关于实验室动物实验的系统评价（SR）。他们发现了 46 篇动物实验荟萃分析（MA），这些 MA 的质量往往较差。其中 6 篇 MA 尝试评估发表偏倚。发表偏倚是指实验结果决定其发表可能性的现象，通常会过度呈现阳性结果。因此，发表偏倚是任何系统评价的致命弱点。由于研究人员越来越意识到系统评价直接支持“3R”，我们预计关于实验室动物实验的系统评价数量将急剧增加。因此，了解如何处理发表偏倚是很有用的。我们的目的是确定所有旨在告知人类健康的实验室动物实验的系统评价和荟萃分析，这些研究发表于 2005 年 7 月至 2010 年 7 月之间，并特别关注 MA 的质量特征和发表偏倚。我们系统地检索了 Medline、Embase、Toxline 和 ScienceDirect 数据库，检索时间为 2005 年 7 月至 2010 年 7 月，更新了 Peters 的综述。不直接告知人类健康或涉及基础生物学的动物实验被排除在外。我们共检索到 2780 篇参考文献，其中 163 篇符合纳入标准：158 篇系统评价，其中 30 篇进行了荟萃分析，5 篇荟萃分析没有系统评价。自 1997 年以来，系统评价的数量大约每三年翻一番。自 1999 年以来，荟萃分析的数量大约每五年翻一番。与 2005 年 7 月之前相比，更多的荟萃分析有系统评价作为依据，并报告了纳入研究的（质量）特征和异质性。有相当比例的荟萃分析认为存在发表偏倚（26/35），并试图正式评估（21/35）。
