Abstract (248
words)
Research data derived from observational studies are accumulating
quickly in the field of allergy and immunology and a large amount of
observational studies are published every year. The aim of the present
study was to evaluate the adherence to the Strengthening the Reporting
of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) checklist by papers
published in the three European Academy of Allergy and Clinical
Immunology journals, during the period 2009-2018. To this end, we
conducted a bibliographic study of up to eight randomly selected papers
per year per Journal. Our literature search resulted in 223 papers.
Among those, 80, 80 and 63 records were from Pediatric Allergy and
Immunology , Allergy and Clinical and Translational
Allergy , respectively; the latter was published only from 2011 on.
Prospective, case-control, and cross-sectional designs were described in
88, 43, and 92 papers, respectively. Full reporting of all STROBE items
was present in 47.4%, 45.6%, and 41.2% for the cohort,
cross-sectional, and case-control studies, respectively. Generally, no
time trend in adherence of reporting STROBE items was observed, apart
from reporting funding, which increased from 60% in 2009/2010 to more
than 90% in 2018. We identified a cluster of STROBE items with low
proportions of full reporting constituted by the items on reporting
study design in the title and methods, variables types along with their
measurement/assessment, bias and confounding, study size, and grouping
of variables. It appears that the STROBE checklist is a suitable tool in
observational allergy epidemiology. However, adherence to the STROBE
checklist appeared suboptimal.