Table 4 Quality appraisal tool
Research question | Are the research question and objectives clearly stated? |
|---|---|
Recruitment | Are the recruitment methods and study population clearly described? |
Baseline measured | Was the outcome of interest measured prior to exposure to gain a baseline for the participants? Was this accounted for when measuring the outcome? |
Similar cohorts | Were eligibility criteria applied uniformly across cohorts and all participants recruited from the same or similar population? |
Sample size | Is there a sample size justification, power description, or variance and effect estimates provided? |
Causation | Was the exposure assessed prior to outcome measurement? |
Time-frame | Was there sufficient time-frame to see an effect? |
Exposure levels | Did the study examine different levels of the exposure of interest? (i.e. multiple categories of exposure or exposure measured as a continuous variable)? |
Exposure measurement | Were the exposures (independent variables) measured in a way that minimised bias? Were they clearly defined, valid, reliable, and implemented consistently across all study participants? |
Outcome measurement | Were the outcomes (dependent variables) measured in a way that minimised bias? Were they clearly defined, valid, reliable, and implemented consistently across all study participants? |
Blinding | Were assessors blinded to exposure? (Where researchers are using data already collected, this would be yes) |
Confounders | Were key potential confounding variables identified and controlled for in statistical analysis? (i.e. were regression models used?) |