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Methodological quality and risk of bias in non-randomised comparative effectiveness studies of invasive mould infections: a systematic review
Many treatment recommendations for invasive mould infections, particularly those caused by rare moulds, rely on non-randomised comparative effectiveness research (CER), which is vulnerable to design and analytical limitations that can bias effect estimates. We systematically reviewed 117 non-randomised studies evaluating interventions for aspergillosis, mucormycosis, fusariosis, scedosporiosis, lomentosporiosis, or phaeohyphomycosis published from 2003 to 2024. We assessed structural susceptibility to bias from misalignment of eligibility, treatment assignment, and start of follow-up, and approaches to confounding adjustment.
