Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic: An Overview of Systematic Reviews

Israel Junior Borges do Nascimento; Donal P O'Mathuna; Thilo Caspar von Groote; Hebatullah Mohamed Abdulazeem; Ishanka Weerasekara; Ana Marusic; Livia Puljak; Vinicius Tassoni Civile; Irena Zakarija-Grkovic; Tina Poklepovic Pericic; Alvaro Nagib Atallah; Santino Filoso; Nicola Luigi Bragazzi; Milena Soriano Marcolino

A limitation of our study is that for AMSTAR 2 assessment we relied on information available in publications; we did not attempt to contact study authors for clarifications or additional data. Appraisal of methodological quality of three reviews was hindered because they were published as letters, labelled as rapid communications. As a result, various details about their review process were not included, leading to AMSTAR 2 questions being answered as not reported and thus to low confidence scores. Full manuscripts might have provided additional information that could have led to higher confidence in the results. In other words, low scores could reflect incomplete reporting, not necessarily low quality review methods. In seeking to make their review available more rapidly and more concisely, methodological details may have been omitted. This reflects a general issue during a crisis where speed and completeness must be balanced.