Abstract:

Objective To evaluate the quality of traditional literature reviews of traditional Chinese medicines(TCM) for diabetic nephropathy to explore the existing problems and to provide basis for methodological improvement. Methods According to the principles and methods of clinical epidemiology and evidence-based medicine and referring the 18 items of QUAROM Statement, we developed a data extraction form. Review articles of TCM for diabetic nephropathy published between Jan 1989 and June of 2005 in Chinese journals were evaluated. Results In total, 108 reviews were included for evaluation in this paper. 99% of the articles did not specify the objectives, and all articles did not describe the sources of cited references, and no information on study design and validity evaluation. Conclusion Traditional reviews are of wide topic areas and lack of definite objectives, inclusion criteria, and may suffer from selection bias, citation bias and publication bias, and lack of qualitative or quantitative synthesis of data. Therefore, the conclusions are not evidence based.

Key words: evidence-based medicine, traditional review, quality assessment, systemic review