Center for Evidence-Based Medicine & Health Care, Catholic University of Croatia, Ilica 242, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia.
Department of Epidemiology, Croatian National Institute of Public Health, Rockefellerova 7, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia.
J Comp Eff Res. 2020 May;9(7):497-508. doi: 10.2217/cer-2019-0201. Epub 2020 May 6.
To analyze descriptors/definitions of meta-epidemiological studies as well as study design of articles that were self-described as meta-epidemiological studies. We searched MEDLINE and Embase on 6 August 2019. We extracted definitions of meta-epidemiological studies, as well as study designs, statistics and units of analysis that were reported in studies self-labelled as meta-epidemiological studies. We included 175 information sources in the analysis. Definitions of meta-epidemiological studies varied and some studies used the term meta-epidemiological study to describe methodological research-on-research studies. Less than a half of the studies (n = 54; 42.9%) used the two-step meta-epidemiological approach in data analysis. Among studies self-labelled as meta-epidemiological, 9.4% reported registration in PROSPERO and 11% indicated they reported the study in line with PRISMA. Research community would benefit from consensus about definition of meta-epidemiological study.
分析被自我描述为元流行病学研究的文章的元流行病学研究的描述符/定义以及研究设计。我们于 2019 年 8 月 6 日在 MEDLINE 和 Embase 上进行了检索。我们提取了自我标记为元流行病学研究的研究中报告的元流行病学研究的定义，以及研究设计、统计学和分析单位。我们对 175 个信息源进行了分析。元流行病学研究的定义各不相同，一些研究使用元流行病学研究这个术语来描述关于研究的方法学研究。不到一半的研究（n=54；42.9%）在数据分析中使用了两步元流行病学方法。在自我标记为元流行病学的研究中，9.4%的研究在 PROSPERO 中进行了注册，11%的研究表示他们按照 PRISMA 进行了报告。研究界将从元流行病学研究的定义共识中受益。
