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Table 4 Quality of evidence and sensitivity analysis in Cochrane reviews

From: Risk of bias assessment of sequence generation: a study of 100 systematic reviews of trials

Rated any randomised trials as high/unclear ROB for sequence generation

Downgraded for study limitations (additional reasons not specified)

Downgraded for study limitations (selection bias)

Sensitivity analysis based on ROB (conducted)

Sensitivity analysis based on ROB (planned; not able to conduct)

Cochrane reviews (n = 57)a

23 (40.4%)

7 (12.3%)

17 (29.8%)

22 (38.6%)

  1. aThree of the 57 (5.3%) reviews did not downgrade at all and rated quality of evidence as high; 23 of the 57 (40.4%) reviews only downgraded for factors other than selection bias (other study limitations or other domains of the Cochrane ROB tool); 1 (1.8%) review did not report why they had downgraded the quality of evidence