To achieve optimal chest compression depth, victims of cardiac arrest should be placed on a firm surface. Backboards are usually placed between the mattress and the back of a patient in the attempt to increase cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) quality, but their effectiveness remains controversial. A systematic search was performed to include studies on humans and simulation manikins assessing CPR quality with or without backboards. ⋯ Out of 557 records, 16 studies were included in the review and all were performed on manikins. The meta-analysis, performed on 15 articles, showed that the use of backboards during CPR increases chest compression depth by 1.46 mm in manikins. Despite statistically significant, this increase could have a limited clinical impact on CPR, due to the substantial heterogeneity of experimental conditions and the scarcity of other CPR quality indicators.