Effectiveness of probiotics in irritable bowel syndrome: methodological quality of meta-analyses and systematic reviews

Abstract

Abstract Objective This study assessed the methodological quality of systematic reviews/meta-analysis of the effectiveness of probiotics against irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) using the accepted methodological quality assessment scale AMSTAR and explored the factors that influenced the quality of methodology. It was designed to provide a reference for future research and systematic reviews/metaanalysis. Methods The methodological quality of existing systematic reviews/meta-analysis was evaluated using the AMSTAR scale. Influencing factors of methodological quality were statistically analyzed using RevMan 5.3 software. The included systematic reviews/metaanalysis must include the following characteristics: (1) methods using systematic evaluation/meta-analysis, (2) probiotic intervention, and (3) language limitation to Chinese and English. Results The AMSTAR score was 5–9 (7.42 ± 1.22), and the quality is above average. The factors affecting the methodological quality are the number of authors and whether they cooperate with the institution. Conclusions Studies have shown that current systematic reviews/meta-analysis of the effectiveness of probiotics on IBS does not fully comply with methodological quality standards, and therefore the methodological quality of research in this area needs to be strengthened. To better clarify how probiotics affect IBS, future systematic reviews and meta-analyses should not only follow methodological quality standards but also include more effective outcome measures, and they should focus more on the discussion of research results. We look forward to the development of higher-quality randomized controlled trials in the future.