Table 1:

MOOSE Checklist for Meta-Analyses of Observational Studies

Item No	Recommendation	Reported on Page No
Reporting of background should include
1	Problem definition	7
2	Hypothesis statement	7
3	Description of study outcome(s)	4, 8
4	Type of exposure or intervention used	8
5	Type of study designs used	8
6	Study population	4
Reporting of search strategy should include
7	Qualifications of searchers (e.g., librarians and investigators)	Title page
8	Search strategy, including time period included in the synthesis and key words	8
9	Effort to include all available studies, including contact with authors	8
10	Databases and registries searched	8
11	Search software used, name and version, including special features used	-
12	Use of hand searching (e.g., reference lists of obtained articles)	8
13	List of citations	Table 2
14	Method of addressing articles published in languages other than English	-
15	Method of handling abstracts and unpublished studies	-
16	Description of any contact with authors	-
Reporting of methods should include
17	Description of relevance or appropriateness of studies assembled for assessing the hypothesis to be tested	8
18	Rationale for the selection and coding of data	8
19	Documentation of how data were classified and coded	8–9
20	Assessment of confounding	8
21	Assessment of study quality, including blinding of quality assessors, stratification or regression on possible predictors of study results	-
22	Assessment of heterogeneity	8
23	Description of statistical methods	8–9
24	Provision of appropriate tables and graphics	Tables 1-3, Figs 2–6
Reporting of results should include
25	Graphic summarizing individual study estimates and overall estimate	Figs 2–6
26	Table giving descriptive information for each study included	Table 2
27	Results of sensitivity testing	9–12
28	Indication of statistical uncertainty of findings	9–12, 14