Table 2.
Quality assessment of included studies using the Newcastle-Ottawa scale.
| Selection | Comparability | Exposure | Total score | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Case definition | Representativeness of the case | Selection of controls | Definition of controls | Comparability of cases and controls | Ascertainment of exposure | Same method of ascertainment for cases and controls | Nonresponse rate | ||
| Hirooka et al. 2012 [24] | ☆ | ☆ | ☆ | ☆☆ | ☆ | ☆ | 7 | ||
| Roberts et al. 2012 [28] | ☆ | ☆ | ☆☆ | ☆ | ☆ | 6 | |||
| Usui et al. 2012 [25] | ☆ | ☆ | ☆ | ☆☆ | ☆ | ☆ | 7 | ||
| Li et al. 2013 [26] | ☆ | ☆ | ☆☆ | ☆ | ☆ | 6 | |||
| Li et al. 2013 [27] | ☆ | ☆ | ☆☆ | ☆ | ☆ | 6 | |||
| Hosseini et al. 2014 [22] | ☆ | ☆ | ☆☆ | ☆ | ☆ | 6 | |||
| Zhang et al. 2014 [23] | ☆ | ☆ | ☆☆ | ☆ | ☆ | 6 | |||
| Park et al. 2014 [18] | ☆ | ☆ | ☆ | ☆☆ | ☆ | ☆ | 7 | ||
| Chung et al. 2014 [19] | ☆ | ☆ | ☆ | ☆☆ | ☆ | ☆ | 7 | ||
| Kim et al. 2014 [20] | ☆ | ☆ | ☆ | ☆☆ | ☆ | ☆ | 7 | ||
| Lamparter et al. 2015 [29] | ☆ | ☆ | ☆ | ☆☆ | ☆ | ☆ | 7 | ||
| Van Keer et al. 2015 [30] | ☆ | ☆ | ☆☆ | ☆ | ☆ | 6 | |||
| Jin et al. 2015 [21] | ☆ | ☆ | ☆ | ☆☆ | ☆ | ☆ | 7 | ||
One ☆ represents one score and the maximum score is 9.