Methodological and reporting quality of systematic reviews and meta-analyses in medicine and health science fields in Ethiopia: Leveraging quantity to improve quality

Abstract

Abstract Background Despite the rise in the number of systematic reviews (SR) and meta-analyses (MA) in medicine and health science fields in Ethiopia, there is limited up-to-date evidence on their methodological and reporting quality for using them in decision-making. The aim of this study was to characterize epidemiological trends and evaluate the methodological and reporting quality of SR and MA in Ethiopia. Methods A retrospective observational overview study was conducted on SR and MA in medicine and health science fields in Ethiopia that were accessed through PubMed, PsycINFO, EMBASE, CINAHL databases and additional manual searching. Title/abstract and full-text screening were conducted in duplicate using EndNote and Covidence semi-automated reference management tools. Data extraction tool was developed in consultation with standard guidelines. We summarized the data using frequencies and median. Two-tailed Chi-Square and Fisher’s Exact tests for categorical variables, while Kruskal-Wallis test for quantitative variables, were used at alpha level 0.05 to compare the differences in the background characteristics of SR and MA as well as across the publication years. All analyses were done using R version 4.0.2 for macOS. Results Of the total 3,125 records initially identified, 349 articles were included in our analyses. Of these, 48 (13.75%) were SR and 301 (86.25%) were MA. The publication rate was dramatically increased with nearly three-quarters (73.9%) of SR and MA published after 2018. Most of the SR and MA included observational studies (92.8%), and infectious disease was the most researched (20.9%) subject area. Number of authors, number of affiliations, publication year, protocol registration, number of primary studies, number of references, citation counts and journal quality were significantly different between SR and MA (p < 0.05). Both SR and MA had a low methodological and reporting quality even though there were improvements in registering protocols, searching databases, and transparently reporting search strategy. Conclusions The production of SR and MA in Ethiopia has been increased over time, especially during the last three years. There is a promising trend of improvement in methodological and reporting quality even though there is much more to do. Authors should equally prioritize quality in addition to the fast-track publication.