[Methodological quality of Meta-analyses regarding studies related to genetic association on papers published in...

To assess the methodological quality of Meta-analyses on papers published in Chinese journals regarding studies on genetic association.

Meta-analyses of genetic association study published in Chinese journals up to December 2012 had been searched through on 4 Chinese electronic databases(China biomedicine database, CNKI, Wanfang database and VIP Information). Articles independently selected by both two researchers under definite inclusion and exclusion criteria were included in this study(with consultation on a third researcher if inconsistent opinions existed). A Measurement Tool for the Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews (AMSTAR) checklist was used to evaluate the methodological quality together with the methodological quality score being calculated.

Totally, 440 articles were included in this study, with mean score of the methodological quality score(maximum score is 11)as 5.77. Among the 440 articles, none had met the requirement of total 11 items in AMSTAR, with 89.5% and 38.6% of them had a priori design or duplicate study selection and data extraction. 72.7% of them performed a comprehensive literature search and 14.8% included studies regardless of their publication status. 10.9% and 92.5% of them provided a list of including or excluding studies or stated characteristics of the included ones. 32.0% of them assessed the scientific quality of those included studies, with 50.0% of them mentioned their qualities when formulating the conclusions. 93.2% of them used appropriate methods to combine data while 82.3% assessed the likelihood of publication bias. 0.5% of them declared the conflict of interests.

Our results from Meta-analyses showed an acceptable quality regarding their methodology related to genetic association on papers being published in Chinese journals. Improvement is needed especially on aspects as:selection of studies, data extraction, publication status with list of inclusion and exclusion, quality assessment and declaration on conflict of interests, etc.