The quality assessment of studies in integrative reviews: A commentary on Reupert et al. (2021)

Abstract

We read with great interest the article entitled 'Stigma in relation to families living with parental mental illness: An integrative review' by Reupert et al. (2021). The authors used the integrative review method proposed by Whittemore and Knafl ( 2005), which emphasizes the importance of conducting a thorough quality appraisal of the included articles. We commend the authors for performing a quality assessment, which is a challenging aspect of integrative reviews considering the inclusion of a wide variety of sources (Whittemore & Knafl 2005). However, we would like to raise certain issues regarding the process used for this review.Given the variety of study designs included in their integrative review, the authors chose to use the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT; Hong et al. 2018).