Table 1.

Characteristics of included reviews by review type

	Cochrane SR (%)	Non-Cochrane SR (%)	RR (%)	CRD RR (%)	Total (%)
Random sample (% of total per group)	30 (6)	30 (0.1)	30 (14)	30 (32)	120 (0.2)
Geographic location of the corresponding author (% of random sample)
Africa	2 (7)	0	0	0	2 (2)
Asia	5 (17)	3 (10)	1 (3)	0	9 (8)
Australia	3 (10)	5 (17)	2 (7)	0	10 (8)
Europe	11 (37)	13 (43)	13 (43)	2 (7)	39 (33)
North America	7 (23)	8 (27)	14 (47)	28 (93)	57 (48)
South America	2 (7)	1 (3)	0	0	3 (3)
Thematic focus
Prevention	11 (37)	5 (17)	4 (13)	7 (23)	27 (23)
Treatment	18 (60)	14 (47)	15 (50)	16 (53)	63 (53)
Health system	1 (3)	2 (7)	7 (23)	7 (23)	17 (14)
Community-based*	0	9 (30)	4 (13)	0	13 (11)
Funding
Governmental, institutional or WHO	30 (100)	30 (100)	30 (100)	30 (100)	120 (100)
Additional funding by company	0	0	1 (3)	0	1 (1)
Conflict of interest (COI)
Declared none	21 (70)	15 (50)	19 (63)	29 (97)	84 (70)
COI declared	9 (30)	3 (10)	3 (10)	0	15 (13)
Unmentioned	0	12 (40)	8 (27)	1 (3)	21 (18)
Study protocol
Yes, mentioned in article	30 (100)	5 (17)	4 (13)	1 (3)	40 (33)
Yes, mentioned in correspondence	0	8 (27)	9 (30)	0	17 (14)
No, confirmed by correspondence	0	2 (7)	4 (13)	0	6 (5)
Unmentioned	0	15 (50)	13 (43)	29 (97)	57 (48)
AMSTAR rating
Median (range)	11 (7, 11)	7 (3, 11)	4 (2, 10)	8 (5, 11)	8 (2, 11)

AMSTAR: measurement tool for the ‘assessment of the methodological quality of systematic reviews’, not applicable questions were not counted. Higher AMSTAR scores indicate higher quality.

*With exclusion of treatment or preventive interventions.

CRD, databases of the University of York, Center for Reviews and Dissemination; RR, rapid review;SR, systematic review.