Alignment of systematic reviews published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and the Database of Abstracts and Reviews of Effectiveness with global burden-of-disease data: a bibliographic analysis

Sze Lin Yoong; Alix Hall; Christopher M Williams; Eliza Skelton; Christopher Oldmeadow; John Wiggers; Chante Karimkhani; Lindsay N Boyers; Robert P Dellavalle; John Hilton; Luke Wolfenden

doi:10.1136/jech-2014-205389

Alignment of systematic reviews published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and the Database of Abstracts and Reviews of Effectiveness with global burden-of-disease data: a bibliographic analysis

J Epidemiol Community Health. 2015 Jul;69(7):708-14. doi: 10.1136/jech-2014-205389. Epub 2015 Apr 17.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Hunter New England Population Health, Wallsend, New South Wales, Australia The University of Newcastle, School of Medicine and Public Health, Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia Hunter Medical Research Institute, New Lambton, New South Wales, Australia.
² The University of Newcastle, School of Medicine and Public Health, Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia Hunter Medical Research Institute, New Lambton, New South Wales, Australia.
³ Hunter New England Population Health, Wallsend, New South Wales, Australia The University of Newcastle, School of Medicine and Public Health, Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia Hunter Medical Research Institute, New Lambton, New South Wales, Australia The George Institute for Global Health, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
⁴ The University of Newcastle, School of Medicine and Public Health, Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia.
⁵ Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, New York, USA.
⁶ Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington DC, USA.
⁷ Dermatology Service, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Eastern Colorado Health Care System, Denver, Colorado, USA University of Colorado, School of Medicine, Aurora, Colorado, USA Department of Epidemiology, Colorado School of Public Health, University of Colorado, Aurora, Colorado, USA.
⁸ Cochrane Editorial Unit, The Cochrane Collaboration, London, UK.

Abstract

Background: Systematic reviews of high-quality evidence are used to inform policy and practice. To improve community health, the production of such reviews should align with burden of disease. This study aims to assess if the volume of research output from systematic reviews proportionally aligns with burden of disease assessed using percentages of mortality and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs).

Methods: A cross-sectional audit of reviews published between January 2012 and August 2013 in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR) and Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE) was undertaken. Percentages of mortality and DALYs were obtained from the 2010 Global Burden of Disease study. Standardised residual differences (SRD) based on percentages of mortality and DALYs were calculated, where conditions with SRD of more than or less than three were considered overstudied or understudied, respectively.

Results: 1029 reviews from CDSR and 1928 reviews from DARE were examined. There was a significant correlation between percentage DALYs and systematic reviews published in CDSR and DARE databases (CDSR: r=0.68, p=0.001; DARE: r=0.60, p<0.001). There was no significant correlation between percentage mortality and number of systematic reviews published in either database (CDSR: r=0.34, p=0.14; DARE: r=0.22, p=0.34). Relative to percentage of mortality, mental and behavioural disorders, musculoskeletal conditions and other non-communicable diseases were overstudied. Maternal disorders were overstudied relative to percentages of mortality and DALYs in CDSR.

Conclusions: The focus of systematic reviews is moderately correlated with DALYs. A number of conditions may be overstudied relative to percentage of mortality particularly in the context of health and medical reviews.

Keywords: EPIDEMIOLOGY; MORBIDITY; MORTALITY; STATISTICS; SYSTEMATIC REVIEWS.

Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Bibliometrics
Cost of Illness*
Databases, Factual
Disabled Persons / statistics & numerical data*
Humans
Mortality / trends*
Review Literature as Topic*

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding