Methodological Quality and Reporting Standards in Systematic Reviews with Meta-Analysis of Physical Activity Studies: a Report from the Strengthening the Evidence in Exercise Sciences Initiative (SEES Initiative)

Background: Suboptimal practices have been observed in methodological conduct, transparency, and report quality of systematic reviews with meta-analysis (SRMAs) from different areas of the health sciences. To our knowledge, there is no such data on SRMAs from exercise sciences.Objective: To assess the methodological and reporting standards in SRMAs of physical activity studies. This report presents the main results of the SEES initiative in 2019.Design: The SEES Initiative uses a prospective systematic review methodology to implement post-publication surveillance of research practices in exercise sciences.Data sources: During the year 2019, pre-specified searches were conducted monthly (PubMed/MEDLINE) in journals from the exercise sciences (n = 9) and medicine (n = 5). The assessments were independently conducted by two authors, based on 36 items/practices derived from established statements/tools (PRISMA, AMSTAR 2, ROBIS).Eligibility criteria: SRMAs should summarize studies that had, at least, one arm consisting of physical activity interventions/exposures and one health or behavioral outcome. Our methodological protocol is publicly available (https://osf.io/2cu8g/).Results: Out 1028 studies assessed for eligibility, 103 SRMAs were included. The minimum adherence was 13/36 items, whereas only one adhered to all items. Some highly contemplated items included: identification of title as SRMA (97.1%) and descriptions of the main outcome in the abstract (95.1%) and risk of bias (RoB) assessment (95.1%). Some poorly contemplated items included: publicly available protocol (4.9%), discussion of the results in light of RoB in studies included (32.0%) and data sharing statements (35.9%). Conclusion: There is a suboptimal adherence to recommended practices on methodological quality and reporting standards in the SRMAs of physical activity intervention/exposure evaluated from the selected journals in 2019, which likely reduce the reproducibility and usefulness of these studies.