OBJECTIVETo measure the agreement, reliability and validity of assessment of multiple systematic reviews (AMSTAR) to assess Chinese systematic reviews on stomatology.

METHODSA comprehensive electronic search was made through Chinese BioMedical Literature Database, VIP Database for Chinese Technical Periodicals and China National Knowledge Infrastructure electronically on March 1st 2011 together with handsearch through 19 stomatological journals to identify published Chinese systematic reviews on stomatology. Each systematic review was assessed by two reviewers with overview quality assessment questionnaire (OQAQ) and AMSTAR. And reliability (interobserver Kappa of the 11 AMSTAR items), interclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of the sum scores and construct validity (ICC of the sum scores of AMSTAR compared with those of the OQAQ) were reported.

RESULTSA total of 52 systematic reviews on stomatology were eligible. The reviewers agreement of the individual items of AMSTAR was with a mean Kappa of 0.81 [95% CI(0.73, 0.89)] while the OQAQ was 0.74 [95% CI (0.66, 0.83)]. The ICC of the total score for AMSTAR was 0.98 [95% CI (0.97, 0.99), P = 0.000]. Cronbach' alpha was 0.69 [95% CI (0.56, 0.80), P = 0.000]. And ICC of the sum scores of AMSTAR compared with those of the OQAQ was 0.94 [95% CI (0.90, 0.97), P = 0.000].

CONCLUSIONAMSTAR has good agreement, reliability and validity. AMSTAR can be well used in Chinese stomatology and can bring dentists much convenience when assess the methodological quality of systematical reviews on stomatology.