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Quality of reviews in epidemiology.

R A Breslow, S A Ross and D L Weed

Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Md. 20892-7344, USA.

OBJECTIVES: This study examined the quality of recent reviews in epidemiology. METHODS: All 1995 issues of 7 widely read epidemiology journals were searched to identify reviews. RESULTS: 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. CONCLUSIONS: 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.

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