Prevalence of review studies published in rehabilitation journals during the last decade

Abstract

Objective: To compare the number of review papers published in rehabilitation journals during recent years with the number published a decade ago. Methods: PubMed search for review papers publi-shed in 7 major rehabilitation journals in 2005?2007 and 2015?2017. Results: Of the 940 review papers identified, 659 were published in 2015?2017, and 281 in 2005?2007. Two journals: Disability and Rehabilitation and Archives of PM&R published over half of all the reviews. Over the last decade, the design of reviews has changed substantially, with an increase in the number of meta-analyses (from 2.5% in 2005 to 44% in 2017) and in the number of reviews conducted solely on randomized controlled studies (from 6% in 2005 to 32% in 2017). Conclusion: PRM training schemes must adjust to the change in published research to enable understanding and interpretation of the results and conclusions of systematic reviews and quantitative analyses.