Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis in Aging Research

Systematic reviewsSystematic review and meta-analyses are proven tools for guiding decision-making in patient care and public policyPublic policies development. They are deemed the highest level of evidence and have become a cornerstone of clinical practice guidelinesClinical practice guidelines in all fields of medicine, with the number of systematic reviewsSystematic review and meta-analyses published increasing yearly in recent decades. However, the production and use of systematic reviewsSystematic review to guide and improve the health of older persons has somewhat lagged. This chapter describes in detail the process of conceiving and conducting systematic reviewsSystematic review and meta-analyses. It begins with a description of their different uses, followed by their differences from narrative reviewsNarrative reviews. The methodologyMethodology used for assembly starts with how the researchResearch question is formulated, which is essential for the construction of each systematic reviewSystematic review. The last part of the chapter focuses on how the results are reported; it is considered a systematic reviewSystematic review when only qualitativeQualitative characteristics of the included studies are presented, while meta-analysis is the quantitative combination of two or more. There are different meta-analyses, including network meta-analysis and Bayesian analyses. Finally, informationInformation is included on the levels of evidence using the GRADE tool, as well as how to assess the quality of systematic reviewsSystematic review.