Reviews of fair comparisons should be systematic
This is the twenty-first blog in a series of 36 blogs explaining 36 key concepts we need to be able to understand to think critically about treatment claims.
Reviews that do not use systematic methods may result in biased or imprecise estimates of the effects of treatments because the selection of studies for inclusion may be biased or the methods may result in some studies not being found. In addition, the appraisal of some studies may be biased, or the synthesis of the results of the selected studies may be inadequate or inappropriate.