Quality of systematic reviews of COVID-19 in people with diabetes: A systematic review

Abstract

ObjectiveTo investigate the methodological quality of published systematic reviews of factors associated with COVID-19 in people with diabetes. MethodSystematic review with registration protocol in PROSPERO, under the number CRD42020222418. Searches were carried out from October to November 2020 in the databases of the MedLine, Web of Science, Scopus, Lilacs, Embase and Cochrane libraries, in addition to searching the reference list of the selected studies. Systematic review studies with or without meta-analysis and without date and language restrictions were included. Data were extracted in a standardized way and the quality of the studies was assessed using the Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews scale. ResultsTwelve reviews, published between 2020 and 2021, with a predominance of the English language, systematic reviews of observational studies with meta-analysis with a sample ranging from six to 83 studies, were included. Regarding financing, most of the study reported did not receive this type of support. Regarding to the assessment of the methodological quality of the studies, three were of moderate quality, five were classified as low quality and three with critically low quality. ConclusionsThe analyzed articles presented a bias in the preparation of reports on their studies, suggesting the need to use mechanisms to improve adherence to the established reporting guidelines and methodological evaluation tools.