Breslow R A, Ross S A, Weed D L
Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Md. 20892-7344, USA.
Am J Public Health. 1998 Mar;88(3):475-7. doi: 10.2105/ajph.88.3.475.
This study examined the quality of recent reviews in epidemiology.
All 1995 issues of 7 widely read epidemiology journals were searched to identify reviews.
Twenty-nine reviews were identified. Methodology was not specified or incomplete for literature searches in 79% of reviews; the same was true for inclusion criteria in 83% and for combining studies in 62%. More than 60% of the reviews were not methodologically systematic.
There is a need to improve the quality of review papers in epidemiology. If systematic methodology were followed more frequently, epidemiologic science and its application could be improved.
本研究调查了近期流行病学综述的质量。
检索了7种广泛阅读的流行病学杂志1995年的所有期刊以识别综述。
共识别出29篇综述。79%的综述未明确说明或未完整描述文献检索方法;83%的综述在纳入标准方面存在同样问题,62%的综述在合并研究方面存在同样问题。超过60%的综述在方法学上缺乏系统性。
有必要提高流行病学综述论文的质量。如果更频繁地遵循系统的方法学,流行病学科学及其应用将会得到改善。