The state of asthma epidemiology: an overview of systematic reviews and their quality

Abstract Background Recently, we have published an overview of systematic reviews in allergy epidemiology and identified asthma as the most commonly reviewed allergic disease. Building on this work, we aimed to investigate the quality of systematic reviews in asthma using the AMSTAR checklist and to...

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Main Authors: Jon Genuneit, Annina M. Seibold, Christian J. Apfelbacher, George N. Konstantinou, Jennifer J. Koplin, Stefania La Grutta, Kirsty Logan, Carsten Flohr, Michael R. Perkin, for the Task Force “Overview of Systematic Reviews in Allergy Epidemiology (OSRAE)” of the EAACI Interest Group on Epidemiology
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BioMed Central 2017-03-01
Series:Clinical and Translational Allergy
Subjects:
Online Access:http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13601-017-0146-y
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spelling doaj-art-ba49804525224bd883e3819ff67c9b042018-08-16T01:13:41ZengBioMed CentralClinical and Translational Allergy2045-70222017-03-01711910.1186/s13601-017-0146-yThe state of asthma epidemiology: an overview of systematic reviews and their qualityJon Genuneit0Annina M. Seibold1Christian J. Apfelbacher2George N. Konstantinou3Jennifer J. Koplin4Stefania La Grutta5Kirsty Logan6Carsten Flohr7Michael R. Perkin8for the Task Force “Overview of Systematic Reviews in Allergy Epidemiology (OSRAE)” of the EAACI Interest Group on EpidemiologyInstitute of Epidemiology and Medical Biometry, Ulm UniversityInstitute of Epidemiology and Medical Biometry, Ulm UniversityInstitute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, University of RegensburgDepartment of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 424 General Military Training HospitalMurdoch Children’s Research Institute, University of MelbourneInstitute of Biomedicine and Molecular Immunology, National Research Council of ItalyDivision of Asthma, Allergy and Lung Biology, Children’s Allergies Department, King’s College LondonUnit for Population-Based Dermatology Research, St John’s Institute of Dermatology, King’s College London and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS FoundationPopulation Health Research Institute, St George’s, University of LondonAbstract Background Recently, we have published an overview of systematic reviews in allergy epidemiology and identified asthma as the most commonly reviewed allergic disease. Building on this work, we aimed to investigate the quality of systematic reviews in asthma using the AMSTAR checklist and to provide a reference for future, more in-depth assessment of the extent of previous knowledge. Methods We included all 307 systematic reviews indexed with asthma, including occupational asthma, and/or wheeze from our previous search in PubMed and EMBASE up to December 2014 for systematic reviews on epidemiological research on allergic diseases. Topics of the included systematic reviews were indexed and we applied the AMSTAR checklist for methodological quality to all. Statistical analyses include description of lower and upper bounds of AMSTAR scores and variation across publication time and topics. Results Of 43 topics catalogued, family history, birth weight, and feeding of formula were only covered once in systematic reviews published from 2011 onwards. Overall, at least one meta-analysis was conducted for all topics except for “social determinants”, “perinatal”, “birth weight”, and “climate”. AMSTAR quality scores were significantly higher in more recently published systematic reviews, in those with meta-analysis, and in Cochrane reviews. There was evidence of variation of quality across topics even, after accounting for these characteristics. Genetic factors in asthma development were often covered by systematic reviews with some evidence of unsubstantiated updates or repetition. Conclusions We present a comprehensive overview with an indexed database of published systematic reviews in asthma epidemiology including quality scores. We highlight some topics including active smoking and pets, which should be considered for future systematic reviews. We propose that our search strategy and database could be a basis for topic-specific overviews of systematic reviews in asthma epidemiology.http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13601-017-0146-yAsthmaSystematic ReviewRespiratory Syncytial VirusRespiratory Syncytial Virus InfectionOccupational Asthma
institution Open Data Bank
collection Open Access Journals
building Directory of Open Access Journals
language English
format Article
author Jon Genuneit
Annina M. Seibold
Christian J. Apfelbacher
George N. Konstantinou
Jennifer J. Koplin
Stefania La Grutta
Kirsty Logan
Carsten Flohr
Michael R. Perkin
for the Task Force “Overview of Systematic Reviews in Allergy Epidemiology (OSRAE)” of the EAACI Interest Group on Epidemiology
spellingShingle Jon Genuneit
Annina M. Seibold
Christian J. Apfelbacher
George N. Konstantinou
Jennifer J. Koplin
Stefania La Grutta
Kirsty Logan
Carsten Flohr
Michael R. Perkin
for the Task Force “Overview of Systematic Reviews in Allergy Epidemiology (OSRAE)” of the EAACI Interest Group on Epidemiology
The state of asthma epidemiology: an overview of systematic reviews and their quality
Clinical and Translational Allergy
Asthma
Systematic Review
Respiratory Syncytial Virus
Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection
Occupational Asthma
author_facet Jon Genuneit
Annina M. Seibold
Christian J. Apfelbacher
George N. Konstantinou
Jennifer J. Koplin
Stefania La Grutta
Kirsty Logan
Carsten Flohr
Michael R. Perkin
for the Task Force “Overview of Systematic Reviews in Allergy Epidemiology (OSRAE)” of the EAACI Interest Group on Epidemiology
author_sort Jon Genuneit
title The state of asthma epidemiology: an overview of systematic reviews and their quality
title_short The state of asthma epidemiology: an overview of systematic reviews and their quality
title_full The state of asthma epidemiology: an overview of systematic reviews and their quality
title_fullStr The state of asthma epidemiology: an overview of systematic reviews and their quality
title_full_unstemmed The state of asthma epidemiology: an overview of systematic reviews and their quality
title_sort state of asthma epidemiology: an overview of systematic reviews and their quality
publisher BioMed Central
series Clinical and Translational Allergy
issn 2045-7022
publishDate 2017-03-01
description Abstract Background Recently, we have published an overview of systematic reviews in allergy epidemiology and identified asthma as the most commonly reviewed allergic disease. Building on this work, we aimed to investigate the quality of systematic reviews in asthma using the AMSTAR checklist and to provide a reference for future, more in-depth assessment of the extent of previous knowledge. Methods We included all 307 systematic reviews indexed with asthma, including occupational asthma, and/or wheeze from our previous search in PubMed and EMBASE up to December 2014 for systematic reviews on epidemiological research on allergic diseases. Topics of the included systematic reviews were indexed and we applied the AMSTAR checklist for methodological quality to all. Statistical analyses include description of lower and upper bounds of AMSTAR scores and variation across publication time and topics. Results Of 43 topics catalogued, family history, birth weight, and feeding of formula were only covered once in systematic reviews published from 2011 onwards. Overall, at least one meta-analysis was conducted for all topics except for “social determinants”, “perinatal”, “birth weight”, and “climate”. AMSTAR quality scores were significantly higher in more recently published systematic reviews, in those with meta-analysis, and in Cochrane reviews. There was evidence of variation of quality across topics even, after accounting for these characteristics. Genetic factors in asthma development were often covered by systematic reviews with some evidence of unsubstantiated updates or repetition. Conclusions We present a comprehensive overview with an indexed database of published systematic reviews in asthma epidemiology including quality scores. We highlight some topics including active smoking and pets, which should be considered for future systematic reviews. We propose that our search strategy and database could be a basis for topic-specific overviews of systematic reviews in asthma epidemiology.
topic Asthma
Systematic Review
Respiratory Syncytial Virus
Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection
Occupational Asthma
url http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13601-017-0146-y
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