Background: Patient and public involvement (PPI) is essential to guarantee that systematic reviews are pertinent and significant to those impacted by a health condition and to those using systematic reviews to guide health policy or practice. Therefore, the BMJ issued a new policy requiring that all submitted manuscripts must include a PPI declaration in their Methods section under a subheading called Patient Involvement in 2014.
Objectives: This study aimed to systematically analyze the proportion, role, function, and reporting quality of PPI in systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
Methods: We will conduct a hand search for all systematic reviews and meta-analyses published in BMJ journals from 2015 to 2022. Two investigators will independently extract data from the “Patient Involvement” section of the systematic reviews. Our analysis will include the proportion, quantity, and role of PPI in systematic reviews. We will also assess, based on the 12 stages proposed by the Cochrane Involving People learning resource, the specific function of PPI in developing questions, planning methods, writing and publishing protocols, running searches, selecting studies, collecting data, assessing risk of bias, analyzing data, interpreting findings, writing reviews and publishing, and disseminating them. Lastly, using the ACTIVE framework and GRIPP2 checklist, we will assess the reporting quality of the PPI in systematic reviews.
Results: We initially included 270 systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Detailed results will be presented at the 2023 Cochrane Colloquium.
Conclusions: The conclusions will be presented at the 2023 Cochrane Colloquium. Patient, public, and/or healthcare consumer involvement: None.