Table 2 Modified R-AMSTAR
R-AMSTAR item | Criteria | Score |
|---|---|---|
1. Was an “a priori” design provided? | Original R-AMSTAR criteria. | 4 |
2. Was there duplicate study selection and data extraction? | Original R-AMSTAR criteria. | 4 |
3. Was a comprehensive literature search performed? | Original R-AMSTAR criteria. | 4 |
4. Was the status of publication (i.e. grey literature) used as an inclusion criterion? | Original R-AMSTAR criteria. | 4 |
5. Was a list of studies (included and excluded) provided? | Original R-AMSTAR criteria. | 4 |
6. Were the characteristics of the included studies provided? | Original R-AMSTAR criteria. | 4 |
7. Was the scientific quality of the included studies assessed and documented? | Modified to consider methodological quality of observational studies (e.g. recruitment selection, information bias, measurement errors, confounding and other errors). | 4 |
8. Was the scientific quality of the included studies used appropriately in formulating conclusions? | Modified to contain one criterion: The scientific quality is considered in the analysis and the conclusions of the review (e.g. “the results should be interpreted with caution due to poor quality of included studies.” | 1 |
9. Were the methods used to combine the findings of studies appropriate? | Original R-AMSTAR criteria. | 4 |
10. Was the likelihood of publication bias assessed? | Original R-AMSTAR criteria. | 4 |
11. Was the conflict of interest included? | Removed one criterion: An awareness/statement of conflict of interest in the primary inclusion studies. As the included studies are not intervention-based, conflicting interests are also unlikely. | 3 |
Total score | 40 |