Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to present a case study of why and how an umbrella
review was conducted and reported within the context of the conservative
management of adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis. We present and discuss
the fi ndings of an umbrella review of systematic reviews regarding both the
screening and the effectiveness of nonsurgical interventions for adolescents
with idiopathic scoliosis. The mandate for school-based screening programs
for adolescents with scoliosis is a highly contentious and strongly debated
issue. As a result of numerous controversial and discordant recommendations
presented over a number of years by different societies and organizations that
have been based on poor-quality systematic reviews, patients, therapists,
insurance providers, policy makers, and researchers remain uncertain and
confused. Nonsurgical interventions for adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis,
including scoliosis- specifi c exercise interventions and bracing, are also controversial.
We evaluated the validity as well as the methodological quality of
all existing systematic reviews on this topic. We summarized, appraised, analyzed,
and synthetized all available studies meeting the minimal criteria for a
systematic review. The methodological quality of the majority of the included
27 systematic reviews, as assessed with the AMSTAR risk of bias tool, was
disappointingly low. More, good-quality primary and secondary studies of higher level designs are urgently needed in this topic. We demonstrated the
role of an umbrella review, as a research tool, to prevent misleading information
and erroneous guidance for stakeholders, resulting from poorly conducted
systematic reviews.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Umbrella Reviews: Evidence Synthesis with Overviews of Reviews and Meta-Epidemiologic Studies |
| Pages | - |
| Number of pages | 0 |
| Publication status | Published - 28 Feb 2016 |