title: The reporting characteristics and methodological quality of Cochrane reviews about health policy research.
abstract: The systematic review has increasingly become a popular tool for researching health policy. However, due to the complexity and diversity in the health policy research, it has also encountered more challenges. We set out the Cochrane reviews on health policy research as a representative to provide the first examination of epidemiological and descriptive characteristics as well as the compliance of methodological quality with the AMSTAR. 99 reviews were included by inclusion criteria, 73% of which were Implementation Strategies, 15% were Financial Arrangements and 12% were Governance Arrangements; involved Public Health (34%), Theoretical Exploration (18%), Hospital Management (17%), Medical Insurance (12%), Pharmaceutical Policy (9%), Community Health (7%) and Rural Health (2%). Only 39% conducted meta-analysis, and 49% reported being updates, and none was rated low methodological quality. Our research reveals that the quantity and quality of the evidence should be improved, especially Financial Arrangements and Governance Arrangements involved Rural Health, Health Care Reform and Health Equity, etc. And the reliability of AMSTAR needs to be tested in larger range in this field.
authors.affiliation: Evidence-Based Medicine Center, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China; Key Laboratory of Evidence Based Medicine and Knowledge Translation of Gansu Province, Lanzhou 730000, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xiu-xia
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China.
authors.forename: Zheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ya
authors.affiliation: Evidence-Based Medicine Center, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China; Key Laboratory of Evidence Based Medicine and Knowledge Translation of Gansu Province, Lanzhou 730000, China.
authors.forename: Chen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yao-long
authors.affiliation: Evidence-Based Medicine Center, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China; Key Laboratory of Evidence Based Medicine and Knowledge Translation of Gansu Province, Lanzhou 730000, China. Electronic address: kehuyangebm2006@126.com.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ke-hu
authors.affiliation: Evidence-Based Medicine Center, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China. Electronic address: lzuebm@163.com.
authors.forename: Zhang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zong-jiu
mesh_terms: D006291:Health Policy; D012107:Research Design / Q000592:standards*; D012196:Review Literature as Topic
keywords: Cochrane reviews; Descriptive characteristics; Epidemiological characteristics; Health policy research; Methodological quality