Sankey diagrams can clarify ‘evidence attrition’: a systematic review and meta-analysis of the effectiveness of rapid diagnostic tests for antimicrobial resistance

The identification and synthesis of evidence on outcomes of interventions is a key step in systematic reviews, and a focus of methodological research in clinical epidemiology [1]. Selection – and selective reporting - of outcomes is also a major source of bias in primary studies and thus reviews, and can lead to overestimates of the effectiveness of interventions, and under-reporting of harms. It can also involve the reporting of outcomes that represent no clinical benefit to patient s, and for this reason there is an increasing emphasis on the incorporation of patients’ views into the development of outcome measures, as a way of ensuring the utility and credibility of trial findings: “Clinical trials are only as credible as their endpoints" [2].
Source: Journal of Clinical Epidemiology - Category: Epidemiology Authors: Source Type: research