Table 3 Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) checklist to assess quality of the cross-sectional studies
ARHQ Methodology Checklist items for Cross-Sectional study | Momma H [26] | Momma H [27] | Moriya S [28] | Moy KA [30] | Zaki M [25] | Amin MN [41] | Davis KE [31] | Chen L [42] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1) Define the source of information (survey, record review) | ⊕ | ⊕ | ⊕ | ⊕ | ⊕ | ⊕ | ⊕ | ⊕ |
2) List inclusion and exclusion criteria for exposed and unexposed subjects (cases and controls) or refer to previous publications | ⊕ | ⊕ | ⊕ | ⊕ | ⊕ | ⊕ | ⊕ | ⊕ |
3) Indicate time period used for identifying patients | ⊕ | ⊕ | ⊕ | ⊕ | ⊕ | ⊕ | ⊕ | ⊕ |
4) Indicate whether or not subjects were consecutive if not population-based | ⊕ | U | ⊕ | ⊕ | ⊕ | U | ⊕ | ⊕ |
5) Indicate if evaluators of subjective components of study were masked to other aspects of the status of the participants | U | U | U | U | U | U | U | U |
6) Describe any assessments undertaken for quality assurance purposes (e.g., test/retest of primary outcome measurements) | U | U | U | U | U | U | U | ⊕ |
7) Explain any patient exclusions from analysis | ⊕ | ⊕ | ⊕ | ⊕ | ⊕ | ⊕ | ⊕ | ⊕ |
8) Describe how confounding was assessed and/or controlled. | ⊕ | ⊕ | U | ⊕ | U | U | U | ⊕ |
9) If applicable, explain how missing data were handled in the analysis | ⊕ | ⊕ | U | ⊕ | U | U | U | ⊕ |
10) Summarize patient response rates and completeness of data collection | ⊕ | ⊕ | ⊕ | ⊕ | ⊕ | ⊕ | ⊕ | ⊕ |
11) Clarify what follow-up, if any, was expected and the percentage of patients for which incomplete data or follow-up was obtained | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Total score | 8 | 8 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 9 |