Table 2.
Quality assessment of included studies.
| Study |
Whether the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) or not |
Selection | Comparability | Outcome | Total awarded stars |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Representativeness of the exposed cohort |
2 Selection of the nonexposed cohort |
3 Ascertainment of exposure |
4 Demonstration that outcome of interest was not present at start of study |
1 Comparability of cohorts on the basis of the design or analysis |
1 Assessment of outcome | 2 Was follow-up long enough for outcomes to occur? |
3 Adequacy of follow-up of cohorts (<20%) |
|||
| Mercer et al., (2013) [5] | NA | ★ | ★ | ★ | NA | ★ | ★ | ★ | NA | 6 |
| Infante-Rivard et al., (2012) [12] | NA | NA | ★ | ★ | NA | ★ | ★ | ★ | NA | 6 |
| Yamada et al., (2011) [6] | Y | ★ | NA | ★ | NA | ★ | ★ | ★ | NA | 7 |
| Chen et al., (2011) [7] | Y | ★ | ★ | ★ | ★ | ★ | ★ | ★ | NA | 7 |
| Parikh-Patel et al., (2009) [13] | NA | NA | ★ | ★ | ★ | ★ | ★ | ★ | NA | 6 |
| Abásolo et al., (2008) [14] | Y | ★ | ★ | ★ | NA | ★ | ★ | ★ | ★ | 7 |
| Hemminki et al., (2008) [15] | NA | ★ | ★ | ★ | ★ | ★ | ★ | ★ | NA | 6 |
| Buchbinder et al., (2008) [16] | Y | ★ | ★ | ★ | NA | ★ | ★ | ★ | NA | 6 |
| Wolfe and Michaud (2007) [17] | NA | ★ | ★ | ★ | NA | ★ | ★ | NA | NA | 5 |
| Setoguchi et al., (2006) [18] | NA | ★ | ★ | ★ | NA | ★ | ★ | ★ | NA | 6 |
| Askling et al., (2005) [19] | NA | ★ | ★ | ★ | NA | ★ | ★ | ★ | NA | 7 |
| Thomas et al., (2000) [20] | NA | ★ | ★ | ★ | NA | ★ | ★ | ★ | ★ | 7 |
| Cibere et al., (1997) [21] | NA | ★ | ★ | ★ | NA | ★ | ★ | ★ | NA | 5 |
| Mellemkjær et al., (1996) [22] | NA | ★ | ★ | ★ | NA | ★ | ★ | ★ | ★ | 7 |
| Moritomo et al., (1995) [23] | NA | ★ | ★ | ★ | NA | ★ | ★ | ★ | NA | 6 |
| Gridley et al., (1993) [24] | NA | ★ | ★ | ★ | ★ | ★ | ★ | ★ | NA | 6 |
NA: not available.
Y: yes.
★: available.