Quality appraisal tools used in qualitative evidence syntheses of maternity care research: A scoping review

Quality appraisal (QA) is an expected component when conducting qualitative evidence syntheses (QES). Multiple QA tools are available, however, rendering reviewers' decision-making on choice of tool challenging.

To identify and assess QA tools used in published QES of maternity care research.

Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) guidance for the conduct of scoping reviews was used. Published QES were included if they reported on pregnant or postpartum women, their partners, or maternity care professionals, in any setting or geographical location. MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, the Cochrane Library, and Epistimonikos were searched from January 2000 to May 2024. Eligibility screening and data extraction were performed by pairs of reviewers independently. The findings were charted using narrative summaries, tables, and figures.

One hundred and one QES were included. The QA tools most frequently used were the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) (n = 48) and the JBI Qualitative Assessment and Review Instrument (JBI-QARI) (n = 22). In the remaining QES, 13 different tools were identified. Both CASP and JBI-QARI meet most of the Cochrane Qualitative and Implementation Methods Group's recommended criteria for a QA tool, although 24 QES that used these tools applied a scoring system.

This scoping review found variation in choice and use of QA tools across 101 QES, although CASP and JBI-QARI were commonly used. It may be reasonable to recommend these tools for use in QES conduct, however, recent work on QA tool development for QES may alter the landscape of QA in future QES of maternity care research.