Annexure 2:

MOOSE guidelines for meta-analyses and systematic reviews of observational studies.

	Topic	Page number
Title	Identify the study as a meta-analysis (or systematic review)	1
Abstract	Use the journal’s structured format Introduction	1
Introduction	The clinical problem	2
	The hypothesis	2
	A statement of objectives that includes the study population, the condition of interest, the exposure or intervention, and the outcome (s) considered	2
Sources	Qualifications of searchers (e.g., librarians and investigators)	3
	Search strategy, including the time period included in the synthesis and keywords	3
	Effort to include all available studies, including contact with authors	3
	Databases and registries searched	3
	Search software used, name and version, including special features used (e.g. explosion)	4
	Use of hand searching (e.g., reference lists of obtained articles)	3
	List of citations located and those excluded, including justification	4
	Method of addressing articles published in languages other than English	NA
	Method of handling abstracts and unpublished studies	3
	Description of any contact with authors	3
Study Selection	Types of study designs considered	3
	Relevance or appropriateness of studies gathered for assessing the hypothesis to be tested	3
	Rationale for the selection and coding of data (e.g., sound clinical principles or convenience)	3
	Documentation of how data were classified and coded (e.g., multiple raters, blinding, and inter-rater reliability)	3
	Assessment of confounding (e.g. comparability of cases and controls in studies where appropriate)	NA
	Assessment of study quality, including blinding of quality assessors; stratification or regression on possible predictors of study results	4
	Assessment of heterogeneity	4
	Statistical methods (e.g. complete description of fixed or random effects models, justification of whether the chosen models account for predictors of study results, dose-response models, or cumulative meta-analysis) in sufficient detail to be replicated	4
Results	A graph summarising individual study estimates and the overall estimate	Figure 2
	A table giving descriptive information for each included study	Table 1
	Results of sensitivity testing (e.g. subgroup analysis)	Supplementary file
	Indication of statistical uncertainty of finding	4
Discussion	Strengths and weakness	13
	Potential biases in the review process (e.g. publication bias)	Figure 7
	Assessment of quality of included studies	7
	Consideration of alternative explanations for observed results	12
	Generalisation of the conclusions (i.e. appropriate for the data presented and within the domain of the literature review)	13
	Guidelines for future research	13
	Disclosure of funding source