What is an Umbrella Review?
Aim: To compile evidence from multiple literature reviews into one summary document to facilitate comparison and contrast.
Synonyms: Overview of reviews
Notes about Methodology
- Search process should be comprehensive and include sources for systematic reviews (JBI, Prospero, Cochrane) as well as relevant subject databases
- Search should consider grey literature sources
- Quality assessment included--review quality tools such as AMSTAR and ROBIS are available
- Analysis includes recommendations for future research
Methodology Guidance
Aromatases, E., Fernandez, R., Godfrey, C. M., Holly, C., Khalil, H., & Tungpunkom, P. (2015). Summarizing systematic reviews: methodological development, conduct and reporting of an umbrella review approach. Int J Evid Based Healthc, 13(3), 132-140. View full text
Umbrella Reviews by
​This book is an ideal guide to umbrella reviews, overviews of reviews, and meta-epidemiologic studies for evidence synthesis. Research is conducted at different levels: primary research consists of original studies while secondary research comprises qualitative reviews, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses. Recently, a novel further level of research has been introduced, based on the analysis and pooling of reviews and meta-analysis. This book is the first to focus solely on this new type of research design, which permits a comprehensive and powerful synthesis of scientific evidence in medicine as well as in many other fields in order to inform decision-making. All aspects are covered, including review design and registration, the searching, abstracting, appraisal, and synthesis of evidence, the appraisal of moderators and confounders, and state of the art reporting. Case studies in a range of medical specialties are then presented. The hands-on approach of the book, written by a multinational team of experts, will enable the reader to interpret and independently conduct umbrella reviews.
ISBN: 9783319256535Publication Date: 2016-02-17
Exemplar
Barnett, M. J., Fealy, S., & Wilson, A. (2019). Barriers and enablers for smoking cessation amongst pregnant women: An Umbrella Review. Women & Birth, 32(4), 310-317 View full text