A methodologic survey on use of the GRADE approach in evidence syntheses published in high-impact factor neurology journals

The GRADE system is a transparent approach to assess the quality of evidence and strength of recommendations in health. It aids in converting evidence into guidelines, enhancing clarity and application in clinical practice. This study aims to identify scoping and systematic reviews using GRADE in top rehabilitation and neurology journals from 2020 to 2022. The top 13 journals of rehabilitation and/or neurology area were selected by Scopus Sources. All systematic reviews and scoping reviews published between 2020 and 2022 were included. Studies that did not use the original GRADE system or failed to describe the GRADE details were excluded. The data of interest were extracted and analyzed by three researchers for an Excel table. There is no relation between the journals’ quality and the number of systematic reviews that used the GRADE system. The Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair and Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases had the highest number of systematic reviews that used the GRADE system (16.7% and 4.8%, respectively). The most used downgrading criteria are both risk of bias and imprecision (100%). The GRADE system is not widely used in the top 13 journals in the rehabilitation and neurology journals.