OBJECTIVES

The aim of the study is to overview the quality assessment tools which used in pharmacoeconomic systematic reviews.

METHODS

Databases including The Cochrane Library (CENTRAL), PubMed, EMbase(Ovid), NHSEED(Ovid), Health Technology Assessment(HTA) Database, CNKI, WangFang, VIP and CBM were searched from inception to May 2018 to collect studies of pharmacoeconomic systematic reviews. Two reviewers independently screened literature and extracted data. Pharmacoeconomic systematic reviews were included and quality assessment tools were descriptive analyzed.

RESULTS

One hundred and forty-three pharmacoeconomic systematic reviews published between 2000 and 2018. Twenty-two quality assessment tools were used. The main tools for quality evaluation were the British Medical Journal(BMJ) checklist (20.15%), the Drummond checklist (19.40%), and the Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards （CHEERS） statement（11.19%）. Furthmore, fifty modified tools（11.2%）were author self-defined based on the Drummond checklist, the BMJ checklist, the CHEC list and the Philips checklist.

CONCLUSIONS

The evidence shows that quality assessment tool has not yet been unified, although the number of systematic reviews of pharmacoeconomic is increasing.