Table 2. Quality assessment of the included studies.
|
Study ID |
Sriram et al.(19) |
Adeyemi-Fowode et al.(18) |
Agarwal et al.(17) |
Julania et al. (13) |
Fang et al.(15) |
Pansky et al.(14) |
Walker et al.(16) |
|
1. Was the research question or objective clearly stated in this paper? |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
2. Was the study population clearly defined? |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
3. Was the participation rate of eligible persons at least 50%? |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
4. Were all subjects selected or recruited from the same or similar populations (including the same time period)? Were the inclusion and exclusion criteria prespecified and applied uniformly to all participants? |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
5. A sample size justification, power description, or variance and effect estimates |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
6. For the analyses in this paper, were the exposure(s) of interest measured before the outcome(s) was measured? |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
7. Was the timeframe sufficient to reasonably expect an association between exposure and outcome if it existed? |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
8. For exposures that can vary in amount or level, did the study examine different levels of exposure as related to the outcome (e.g., categories of exposure, or exposure measured as continuous variable)? |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
9. Are the exposure measures (independent variables) clearly defined, valid, reliable, and implemented consistently across all participants? |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
10. Was the exposure(s) assessed more than once? |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
11. Were the outcome measures (dependent variables) clearly defined, valid, reliable, and implemented consistently across all participants? |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
12. Were the outcome assessors blinded to the exposure status of the participants? |
* |
* |
* |
* |
* |
* |
* |
|
13. Did loss to follow-up after a baseline of 20% or less? |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
14. Were key potential confounding variables measured and adjusted statistically for their impact on the relationship between exposure(s) and outcome(s)? |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
Total score (out of 14) |
10/14 |
10/14 |
12/14 |
11/14 |
10/14 |
11/14 |
11/14 |
Key: 1= Yes, 0= No, *: Not reported, N/A: Not applicable