Appendix Table 5. Assessment of selected quality criteria in 14 studies of patients with or without a history of stroke.
| Author Year | Was AF the primary exposure of interest? |
Inclusion & exclusion criteria clearly stated? |
Was ECG used as one of the methods for AF ascertainment? |
Method of Outcome ascertainment |
Tempo rality clear? |
Lost to follow up, % |
Adjustment | Number of quality criteria met* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ott 1997 (28) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Superior† | No | N/A | Multivariate | 5 |
| Cacciatore 1998 (29) | No | Yes | No | Acceptable | No | N/A | Multivariate | 2 |
| Tilivis 2004 (33) | No | No | Unclear | Acceptable | Yes | > 10% | Minimal | 1 |
| Elias 2006 (13) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Superior | Yes | Unclear | Multivariate | 6 |
| Jozwiak 2006 (30) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Acceptable | No | N/A | Minimal | 3 |
| Debette 2007 (31) | No | Yes | Unclear | Acceptable | No | N/A | Multivariate | 2 |
| Forti 2007 (34) | Yes | Yes | No | Superior | Yes | Unclear | Multivariate | 5 |
| Bilato 2009 (32) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Acceptable | No | N/A | Multivariate | 4 |
| Marengoni 2009 (14) | Yes | Yes | No | Superior | Yes | >10% | Multivariate | 5 |
| Peters 2009 (16) | No | Yes | Yes‡ | Superior† | Yes | Unclear | Multivariate | 5 |
| Bunch 2010 (11) | Yes | Yes | Yes§ | Acceptable | Yes | Unclear | Multivariate | 5 |
| Dublin 2011 (12) | Yes | Yes | No | Superior | Yes | <10%‡ | Multivariate | 6 |
| Li 2011 (35) | No | Yes | No | Superior | Yes | >10% | Multivariate | 4 |
| Marzona 2012 (36) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Acceptable | Yes | <10% | Multivariate | 6 |
Studies are ordered based on the publication year.
The purpose of the numbers reported in this column is to provide an overview of how studies compare to each other in terms of methodological quality. We made every effort to include the most comprehensive and relevant quality criteria; however, there is no standard basis for quality assessment of observational studies. Although we find it unlikely that the classification of studies would dramatically change by using different quality criteria. It should be kept in mind that these numbers could vary depending on the items chosen for quality assessment (54, 55). Therefore, readers are encouraged to focus on each individual quality criterion rather than the overall quality scores in the assessment of bias.
Superior for dementia acceptable for cognitive impairment.
Per contact with the author.
ECG database of all Intermountain Healthcare hospitals and ICD-9 codes were used for AF diagnosis.