{
  "abstract": "Well reported systematic reviews of health interventions provide valuable information for making therapeutic decisions, informing policies, and identifying research priorities. When reporting a systematic review of interventions used in paediatrics, addressing the heterogeneity of people aged 0-19 years pertaining to the biological, pharmacological, and psychological variabilities during child development (ontogeny) is essential. To enable reporting the essential detail on treatment effects related to age and developmental stages in these systematic reviews, an extension to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guideline was developed: PRISMA-Children and Adolescents (PRISMA-C) 2026. The extension comprises a checklist, explanations, and examples of good reporting for seven main checklist items and four abstract items, and present paediatric examples of good reporting for 10 PRISMA 2020 items to which the ontogeny statement applies. All new items were deemed relevant by evidence end users, including family caregivers. Adherence to the PRISMA-C 2026 extension should improve the reporting of key paediatric specific details that enhance the understandability and interpretability of the evidence on interventions for children and adolescents.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Child Health Evaluative Sciences, The Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada"
      ],
      "name": "Ami Baba"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "AstraZeneca, Mississauga, ON, Canada"
      ],
      "name": "Mufiza Farid-Kapadia"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "INFORM RARE Research Network, ON, Canada"
      ],
      "name": "Maureen Smith"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Alberta Research Centre for Health Evidence, Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada"
      ],
      "name": "Lisa Hartling"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, ON, Canada",
        "School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa, ON, Canada"
      ],
      "name": "David Moher"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Cochrane Netherlands, Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands"
      ],
      "name": "Lotty Hooft"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Child Health Evaluative Sciences, The Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada"
      ],
      "name": "Martin Offringa"
    }
  ],
  "title": "PRISMA-Children and Adolescents (PRISMA-C) 2026 extension statement and explanation: enhancing the reporting and utility of systematic reviews of interventions in paediatrics",
  "uid": "26550db9-856c-55d6-8f63-df461e7c3bf2"
}