Descriptive characteristics of included MAs
| Category | All meta-analyses n=607 |
|---|---|
| Total number of journals | 265 |
| Funding source (yes) | |
| Government | 173 (28.5) |
| Industrial | 0 (0) |
| Other | 39 (6.3) |
| Common ICD-10 | |
| Neoplasms | 261 (43) |
| Diseases of the digestive system | 26 (4.3) |
| Certain infectious and parasitic diseases | 28 (4.6) |
| Disease of the circulatory system | 103 (17) |
| Diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue | 14 (2.3) |
| Diseases of the blood and blood forming organs and immune mechanism | 12 (1.9) |
| Endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases | 34 (5.6) |
| Diseases of the respiratory system | 16 (2.6) |
| Diseases of the genitourinary system | 14 (2.3) |
| Congenital malformations, deformations and chromosomal abnormalities | 3 (0.5) |
| Injury, poisoning and certain other consequences of external causes | 61 (10.1) |
| Pregnancy, childbirth and puerperium | 22 (3.6) |
| Certain conditions originating in the perinatal period | 6 (0.9) |
| Diseases of the eye and adnexa | 7 (1.2) |
| Number of authors, median (IQR) | 4 (1–11) |
| Number of included studies, median (IQR) | |
| Cohort, n=24 | 13 (2–215) |
| Case–controlled, n=488 | 12 (2–90) |
| Cohort + case–controlled, n=65 | 11 (1–189) |
| Cross-sectional, n=10 | 16 (2–63) |
| Number of participants in included studies, median (IQR) | |
| Cohort, n=89 | 561 279 (76–7 069 228) |
| Case–controlled, n=553 | 4575 (72–105 293) |
| Cross-sectional, n=10 | 78 (3–11 215) |
| Types of clinical study (yes) | |
| Therapy | 31 (5.1) |
| Aetiology | 576 (94.9) |
| Types of models in included studies (yes) | |
| Fixed model | 107 (17.6) |
| Random model | 164 (27.2) |
| Not reported | 336 (55.2) |
| Indexed in CSCD, yes n (%) | 18.9 |
| Update of a previous review: yes n (%) | 0 (0) |
CSCD, Chinese Science Citation Database; ICD-10, International Classification of Diseases 10th edition; MA, meta-analyses.