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Table 3 Prevalence and characteristics of QA in included SLRs

From: Quality appraisal for systematic literature reviews of health state utility values: a descriptive analysis

Description of data item analysed

SLRs

#

%

1. All studies included in the review (N = 73)

 Prevalence of quality appraise

  Appraised the quality of contributing studies

40

54.8%

  Did not appraise quality of contributing studies

33

45.2%

2. A subset of studies that appraised quality of individual studies (N = 40)

 Critical assessment tool type

  Custom-made (ad-hoc)

16

40.0%

  Adapted existing tool(s)

13

32.5%

  Standardized tool

7

17.5%

  Both standard and a custom-made tool

2

5.0%

  Both adapted and a custom-made tool

1

2.5%

  Not reported

1

2.5%

 Based on NICE/ISPOR tools

  Yes

16

40.0%

  Other tools and good practice recommendations

24

60.0%

 Critical assessment format

  Scale (score based)

12

30.0%

  Checklist

9

22.5%

  Domain based

11

27.5%

  Both checklist and domain based

2

5.0%

  Both scale and checklist

2

5.0%

  Both scale and domain based

3

7.5%

  Not reported

1

2.5%

 Quality appraisal dimensions used

  Reporting quality only

7

17.5%

  RoB only

9

22.5%

  Relevancy only

2

5.0%

  RoB and Relevancy

3

7.5%

  RoB and Reporting

6

15.0%

  Reporting, RoB (Methodological) and Relevancy

13

32.5%

 Use of QA results to inform data synthesis and conclusions

  No attempt to incorporate quality assessment findings into systematic review findings

15

37.5%

  Narrative discussion (with minimal evidence for incorporation deemed acceptable)

18

45.0%

  Sensitivity analysis

1

2.5%

  Exclude studies at high or unclear risk of bias (or moderate or low quality) from the synthesis

5

12.5%

  Unknown

1

2.5%

 Type of data synthesis

  Qualitative (descriptive) synthesis

20

50.0%

  Quantitative synthesis (meta-analysis or regression)

4

10.0%

  Both Qualitative and Quantitative

16

40.0%

 Distribution of the number identified QA tools, checklists and GPRs per SRL included

#

  Median

2

  Mean

2

  Q1

1

  Q3

2

  Minimum

1

  Max

9

  IQR

1

 Distribution the number items used to appraise quality per SRL included

  Median

8

  Mean

10

  Q1

7

  Q3

13

  Minimum

1

  Max

30

  IQR

6

  1. Source: Authors’ elaboration
  2. IQR Interquartile range, Q1 25th percentile value, Q2 50th percentile (median), Q3 75th % percentile value, QA Quality appraisal (or assessment), SLR Systematic literature review