English summary: The use of Cochrane reviews in Current Care Guidelines

Background

Cochrane reviews form an important part of systematic reviews based on randomized controlled trials. The use of Cochrane reviews in clinical guidelines has been shown to be variable. The purpose of this study was to examine the use of Cochrane reviews in Finnish Current Care Guidelines between December 2012 and July 2013. The use of other systematic reviews or meta-analyses in a subsample of 10 Current Care Guidelines was also analysed.

Methods

All Current Care Guidelines (www.kaypahoito.fi/web/english/home) were analysed for citations to Cochrane reviews between December 2012 and July 2013. Additionally, a random sample of 10 Current Care Guidelines was examined for citations to other systematic reviews or meta-analyses.

Results

There were 769 citations to Cochrane reviews out of a total of 20320 citations (3.8%) in 101 Current Care Guidelines. The median number of citations to Cochrane reviews per Guideline was 4 (interquartile range 2-10).

Almost all (n = 91) Guidelines cited Cochrane reviews at least once, however, in ten Guidelines (9.9%, 95% CI 5.5 to 17.3) there were no citations to Cochrane reviews at all.

In ten randomly drawn Current Care Guidelines there were altogether 294 citations to systematic reviews or meta-analyses (206 systematic reviews or meta-analyses and 88 Cochrane reviews) which comprised 14.6% of all citations (294/2011) in these ten Guidelines.

Conclusions

Almost all Current Care Guidelines cited Cochrane reviews at least once. In a small proportion of Guidelines there were no citations to Cochrane reviews at all. Citations to systematic reviews, meta-analyses and Cochrane reviews accounted for around 15 percent of all citations in Current Care Guidelines.