The Development of a Critical Appraisal Tool for Use in Systematic Reviews: Addressing Questions of Prevalence

Background: Recently there has been a significant increase in the number of systematic reviews addressing \nquestions of prevalence. Key features of a systematic review include the creation of an a priori protocol, clear \ninclusion criteria, a structured and systematic search process, critical appraisal of studies, and a formal process \nof data extraction followed by methods to synthesize, or combine, this data. Currently there exists no standard \nmethod for conducting critical appraisal of studies in systematic reviews of prevalence data. \nMethods:A working group was created to assess current critical appraisal tools for studies reporting prevalence \ndata and develop a new tool for these studies in systematic reviews of prevalence. Following the development of \nthis tool it was piloted amongst an experienced group of sixteen healthcare researchers. \nResults:The results of the pilot found that this tool was a valid approach to assessing the methodological \nquality of studies reporting prevalence data to be included in systematic reviews. Participants found the tool \nacceptable and easy to use. Some comments were provided which helped refine the criteria. \nConclusion:The results of this pilot study found that this tool was well-accepted by users and further \nrefinements have been made to the tool based on their feedback. We now put forward this tool for use by \nauthors conducting prevalence systematic reviews.