Prevalence and methodological features of critical assessment performed in systematic reviews published in BJSM
| Data items | Reviews k (%) |
| Critical assessment performed in systematic review | 65 (99) |
| Critical assessment tool type | |
| Standard tool | 42 (65) |
| Adapted tool | 14 (21) |
| Custom tool | 9 (14) |
| Critical assessment tool format | |
| Checklist | 18 (28) |
| Scale | 38 (58) |
| Domain-based | 9 (14) |
| Ranking system | 50 (77) |
| Simple summary score | 19 (38) |
| Cut-off threshold score | 31 (62) |
| Separate critical assessments for each outcome | |
| Yes | 11 (17) |
| No | 54 (83) |
| Domain-based assessment across outcomes | |
| Yes | 10 (15) |
| No | 55 (85) |
| Critical assessment for each tool item | |
| Yes | 47 (72) |
| No | 18 (28) |
| Methods to incorporate risk of bias assessment findings into review findings | |
| Meta-regression (quantitative) | 2 (3) |
| Sensitivity analysis (quantitative) | 10 (15) |
| Excluded studies at high or unclear risk of bias (or moderate or low quality) (qualitative) | 1 (2) |
| Qualitative description (ie, narrative discussion) | 43 (66) |
| No attempt to incorporate risk of bias assessment findings into review findings | 9 (14) |