BMJ  2005;331 (3 September), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7515.0-e

Systematic reviews should assess quality of RCT interventions

Systematic reviews of randomised controlled trials that assess complex interventions should also assess the quality of interventions tested in the trials, argue Herbert and Bø on page 507. They present a systematic review that assessed effect of training pelvic floor muscle exercises on urinary incontinence in pregnancy to show how the pooled estimate of all trials changes after exclusion of a trial where exercise wasn't supervised. Analyses of quality of intervention should be specified in the review protocol, and they should focus on the effects that this quality could have on the effects of the intervention, say the authors.

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Relevant Article

Analysis of quality of interventions in systematic reviews

Robert D Herbert and Kari Bø
BMJ 2005 331: 507-509. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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