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Article History

Received: 20 May 2025

Accepted: 17 September 2025

First Online: 14 October 2025

Declarations

:

: Hanan Khalil, Brian G Bell, Richard N Keers, Penny Lewis, Megan Foreman, Amelia Taylor, Barbara Iyen and Darren Ashcroft have no conflicts of interest to declare. Aziz Sheikh received a WHO grant addressing patient safety in primary care. Anthony Avery received BUPA Foundation funding in 2001 to 2002 on a much earlier version of this review (Smeaton 2002). Anthony Avery is National Clinical Director for Prescribing for NHS England.

: Ethics approval was not required for this systematic review as it involved analysis of previously published studies and did not involve primary data collection from human participants.

: Not applicable—this systematic review did not involve direct participation of human subjects.

: Not applicable—this systematic review did not involve individual patient data requiring consent for publication.

: The datasets supporting the conclusions of this article are included within the article and its supplementary information files. The search strategies and data extraction forms are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

: No custom code was developed for this systematic review. All analyses were conducted using standard functions in Review Manager 5.

: Hanan Khalil was involved in the conception of this review, the drafting of the initial protocol and providing critical feedback on drafts of the review. Hanan Khalil selected the studies for inclusion/exclusion and critically appraised the included studies. Hanan Khalil undertook the analysis described in the review and wrote the review. She approved the final version of the review. Anthony Avery was involved in the conception of the initial review, the drafting of the initial protocol and providing critical feedback on drafts of the review. Anthony Avery helped with editing the review. He approved the final version of the review. Brian G Bell selected the studies for inclusion/exclusion and critically appraised the included studies and helped with editing the review. He approved the final version of the review. Richard N Keers, Penny Lewis, Megan Foreman, Amelia Taylor and Barbara Iyen critically appraised the included studies during screening, helped with editing the review, and approved the final version. Darren Ashcroft was involved in securing funding for the review, review of the protocol and providing critical feedback on drafts of the review and approved the final version. Aziz Sheikh was involved in the conception of this review, the drafting of the initial protocol and providing critical feedback on drafts of the review. He approved the final version of the review.