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Published on: December 9, 2015
Proposed Risk of Bias Assessment Tool for In Vitro Antimicrobial Susceptibility Studies
Matthew E Falagas1,2,3, Dimitrios Ragias1, Dimitrios S Kontogiannis1
1Alfa Institute of Biomedical Sciences (AIBS), Marousi, 151 23 Athens, Greece.
Abstract:
The assessment of risk of bias in systematic reviews and meta-analyses is crucial, as it indicates the accuracy of the synthesized and evaluated data and the validity of the presented results and conclusions. Until now, standardized tools for this purpose have been available only for clinical and animal studies, while adapted forms of these tools and novel ones have been proposed for in vitro and laboratory studies. However, none of them have been universally standardized so far. The apparent lack of a risk of bias assessment tool for systematic reviews of in vitro antimicrobial susceptibility testing studies constitutes a methodological flaw in these studies. To this end, we developed a risk of bias assessment tool for in vitro antimicrobial susceptibility testing studies. Our tool assesses the risk of bias across six domains: methodological bias, selection bias, preparation bias (including contamination/cross-contamination bias), measurement/observer bias, reporting and publication bias, and bias related to unreported funding and conflicts of interest. The tool evaluates a total of 16 specific criteria. The risk of bias is graded as low, moderate, or high for each evaluated criterion. The proposed risk of bias assessment tool was tested in a pilot validation study of ten relevant studies by two reviewers independently. We believe that the use of the proposed risk of bias assessment tool will increase the methodological strength of systematic reviews and meta-analyses of in vitro antimicrobial susceptibility testing studies.
Insights
A new risk of bias tool was developed for systematic reviews of in vitro antimicrobial susceptibility testing studies. This tool enhances the methodological rigor and validity of findings from these crucial research syntheses.
Area of Science:
- Microbiology
- Biostatistics
- Research Methodology
Background:
- Assessing risk of bias is vital for systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
- Standardized tools exist for clinical/animal studies, but not universally for in vitro studies.
- A gap exists in risk of bias assessment for in vitro antimicrobial susceptibility testing studies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate a novel risk of bias assessment tool specifically for systematic reviews of in vitro antimicrobial susceptibility testing studies.
- To address the methodological flaw caused by the lack of standardized bias assessment in this field.
Main Methods:
- Developed a risk of bias assessment tool covering six domains: methodological, selection, preparation, measurement/observer, reporting/publication, and funding/conflict of interest bias.
- The tool evaluates 16 specific criteria, grading risk as low, moderate, or high.
- Pilot validation involved two independent reviewers assessing ten relevant studies.
Main Results:
- The developed tool systematically assesses bias across key domains relevant to in vitro antimicrobial susceptibility testing studies.
- Pilot validation demonstrated the tool's applicability and potential for independent reviewer use.
- The tool provides a graded assessment (low, moderate, high) for 16 specific criteria.
Conclusions:
- The proposed risk of bias assessment tool is a significant advancement for in vitro antimicrobial susceptibility testing research.
- Its application is expected to enhance the methodological strength and reliability of systematic reviews and meta-analyses in this area.
- This tool aims to improve the overall quality and trustworthiness of synthesized evidence from in vitro antimicrobial susceptibility testing studies.
