• English
  • Español

A measurement tool to assess the methodological quality of systematic reviews of non-randomized studies (AMSTAR NRS)

Topic category Investigating bias
Date and Location
Date: 
Saturday 22 October 2011 - 14:00 - 15:30
Location: 
Unesco
Methods Group
Methods Group: 
Non-Randomised Studies Methods Group
Contact person
Contact person: 
Beverley Shea (Contact this person)
Facilitators
First nameLast nameAffiliation and Country
First name: 
Beverley
Last name: 
Shea
Affiliation and Country: 
CIET, Canada
First name: 
George
Last name: 
Wells
Affiliation and Country: 
University of Ottawa, Canada
Other contributors
First nameLast nameAffiliation and Country
First name: 
David
Last name: 
Moher
Affiliation and Country: 
University of Ottawa, Canada
First name: 
Barney
Last name: 
Reeves
Affiliation and Country: 
Non-Randomised Studies Methods Group
First name: 
David
Last name: 
Henry
Affiliation and Country: 
ICES, Canada
First name: 
Peter
Last name: 
Tugwell
Affiliation and Country: 
University of Ottawa
First name: 
Neil
Last name: 
Andersson
Affiliation and Country: 
CIET, Canada
Target audience
Target audience: 
Reviewers
Is your workshop restricted to a specific audience or open to all Colloquium participants?: 
Open
Level of knowledge required: 
Any
Type of workshop
Type of workshop: 
Training
Abstract text
Abstract: 
Since we introduced it in 2007 AMSTAR, which was developed and validated against RCTs, has become widely used for assessing the quality of systematic reviews (SRs). However, over half of published SRs now include non-randomized studies (NRS). Many of these reviews of disease associations and treatment effects cover topics that are of considerable significance to clinicians and policy makers. NRS are prone to a range of biases, and poor quality SRs that include these designs can be misleading. It is important to develop an instrument that enables users of such reviews to make a rapid and accurate appraisal of their quality. We intend to develop and validate a new instrument, AMSTAR NRS, which will be better suited to this purpose.
The workshop will include a discussion of the methodological challenges in the evaluation of SRs of NRS. We will present participants with SRs that include NRS and provide them with an opportunity to use AMSTAR to perform an assessment of their quality. Small group discussions will also allow us to gain knowledge about the experiences of using AMSTAR to assess the quality of reviews that include NRS and to get suggestions for developing an instrument for assessing SRs of NRS.