Diagnosis is the critical component of health care and the studies of diagnostic test can provide important evidence for clinical decisions. Studies of diagnostic test are subject to different sources of bias in design, performance and reporting of studies. Therefore, researchers who understand various sources of bias can reasonably perform the diagnostic test and evaluate its quality, and will provide scientific evidences for clinical practice.
ObjectiveTo systematically review the unfavorable treatment outcome of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in China. MethodsCNKI, WanFang Data, CBM, PubMed, EMbase, and Web of Science databases were electronically searched to collect studies that reported unfavorable treatment outcomes of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in China from inception to April 2021. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data, and assessed the risk of bias of included studies. Meta-analysis was then performed by using Stata 12.0 software. ResultsA total of 11 studies involving 4 465 patients were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that the overall rate of treatment success was 62% (95%CI 55% to 70%), the rate of treatment failure was 19% (95%CI 12% to 26%), the rate of default was 7% (95%CI 4% to 10%), the rate of mortality was 6% (95%CI 4% to 8%) and the rate of unfavorable treatment outcome was 25% (95%CI 19% to 32%). ConclusionsCurrent evidence shows that the treatment failure rate of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in China is slightly high. Due to limited quality and quantity of the included studies, more high-quality studies are required to verify the above conclusions.