Medical Student UT Southwestern Medical Center Dallas, TX, United States
Disclosure(s):
Romaine F. Johnson, MD, MPH: No relevant relationships to disclose.
Jinghan Zhang, MPH: No relevant relationships to disclose.
Introduction: Reporting guidelines are simple checklists that can help a study's comprehension, reproducibility, utility in medical decision-making, and inclusion in future systematic reviews. Despite the advantages of guidelines, their use in otolaryngology is variable. The aim of this study is to determine the adherence rate to reporting guidelines in published otolaryngology research.
Methods: We performed an evidence-based review of all original research published in 2021 in five otolaryngology journals - JAMA Oto, Oto-HNS Surgery, Laryngoscope, Head and Neck, and Otology and Neurotology. Articles were reviewed for adherence to the appropriate guideline for the study type, for example, STROBE for observational studies. Data are presented as counts with percentages. Differences in adherence were determined using the Pearson chi-square test.
Results: There were 1140 original research articles published in 2021 in the five journals. Most studies were observational, where the STROBE reporting guidelines are recommended (n=791, 70.3%). All studies had an average adherence rate of 16.8% (n=192/1140). The PRISMA guidelines had the highest adherence rate at 94% (n=129/137). The STROBE adherence rate was 4.9%, with JAMA Oto having the highest proportion of observation studies using the STROBE (23/49,46.9%). JAMA Oto had the highest adherence rate overall at 52.5% of published original research adhering to a guideline (chi2=88.7, P< 0.001).
Conclusions: Reporting guidelines are important tools to use in presenting original research. The use of these guidelines varies in the otolaryngology literature and highlights the ongoing need to support research reproducibility and usefulness.
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