A review of publication bias in the gastroenterology literature

Indian Journal of Gastroenterology : Official Journal of the Indian Society of Gastroenterology
Trace Heavener, Matt Vassar

Abstract

In systematic reviews and meta-analyses, publication bias is particularly problematic, given that combining only statistically significant outcomes is likely to overestimate the true effect of an intervention since non-significant findings have been omitted. We examined practices for evaluating publication bias from gastroenterology literature. We performed a PubMed search to identify systematic reviews published in American Journal of Gastroenterology, Gut, and Gastroenterology from 2005 to 2015. Of the 304 found, 215 studies were eligible for inclusion based on relevant study characteristics. There were 190 systematic reviews which used at least one method to evaluate publication bias and/or included ten or more primary studies. There were 115/190 (60.53%) systematic reviews which used at least one method to evaluate publication bias. Most (105/115, 91.27%) qualified reviews used at least one method to evaluate publication bias and 78/115 (67.83%) used a combination of methods. The most common methods were funnel plot (100/115, 86.96%), Egger's regression (67/115, 58.26%), and Begg's (28/115, 24.35%). Of the 115 reviews that performed evaluations, 26 (22.61%) conducted these analyses with fewer than ten primary studies, and a...Continue Reading

References

Mar 9, 1990·JAMA : the Journal of the American Medical Association·K Dickersin
Jun 24, 2003·Statistics in Medicine·Norma TerrinIngram Olkin
Dec 28, 2004·BMJ : British Medical Journal·Victor M MontoriUNKNOWN Hedges Team
May 19, 2005·JAMA : the Journal of the American Medical Association·Nikolaos A PatsopoulosJohn P A Ioannidis
Apr 20, 2006·JAMA : the Journal of the American Medical Association·R Brian HaynesUNKNOWN McMaster Premium Literature Service (PLUS) Project
Mar 29, 2007·PLoS Medicine·David MoherDouglas G Altman
Jan 8, 2008·Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology : CJASN·Amit X GargMarcello Tonelli
Jan 14, 2009·BMC Medical Research Methodology·Santiago G MorenoNicola J Cooper
Apr 17, 2009·The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews·Jill FerrariTrevor D Prior
Feb 26, 2010·Health Technology Assessment : HTA·F SongI Harvey
Jul 26, 2011·BMJ : British Medical Journal·Jonathan A C SterneJulian P T Higgins
Jun 3, 2014·BMC Medical Research Methodology·W Annefloor van EnstMariska M Leeflang
Mar 2, 2016·Journal of Dermatological Science·Paul Atakpo, Matt Vassar

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Citations

Feb 18, 2020·Molecular and Clinical Oncology·Muhamaad Naveed ShahzadChunlan Huang

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Related Concepts

Related Feeds

Atrophic Gastritis

Atrophic Gastritis is a process where gastric glandular cells are lost and replaced with firbous tissues, as a result of chronic inflammation. Learn more about Atrophic Gastritis here.