title: The Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) Statement: guidelines for reporting observational studies.
abstract: Much biomedical research is observational. The reporting of such research is often inadequate, which hampers the assessment of its strengths and weaknesses and of a study's generalisability. The Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) Initiative developed recommendations on what should be included in an accurate and complete report of an observational study. We defined the scope of the recommendations to cover three main study designs: cohort, case-control, and cross-sectional studies. We convened a 2-day workshop in September 2004, with methodologists, researchers, and journal editors to draft a checklist of items. This list was subsequently revised during several meetings of the coordinating group and in e-mail discussions with the larger group of STROBE contributors, taking into account empirical evidence and methodological considerations. The workshop and the subsequent iterative process of consultation and revision resulted in a checklist of 22 items (the STROBE Statement) that relate to the title, abstract, introduction, methods, results, and discussion sections of articles. 18 items are common to all three study designs and four are specific for cohort, case-control, or cross-sectional studies. A detailed Explanation and Elaboration document is published separately and is freely available on the Web sites of PLoS Medicine, Annals of Internal Medicine, and Epidemiology. We hope that the STROBE Statement will contribute to improving the quality of reporting of observational studies.
authors.affiliation: Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV) and University of Lausanne, IUMSP - Institut universitaire de médecine sociale et préventive, Lausanne, Switzerland. Electronic address: strobe@ispm.unibe.ch.
authors.forename: Erik
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: von Elm
authors.affiliation: Centre for Statistics in Medicine, Oxford, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Douglas G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Altman
authors.affiliation: Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM), University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland; Centre for Infectious Diseases Epidemiology and Research (CIDER), University of Cape Town, South Africa.
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Egger
authors.affiliation: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Stuart J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Pocock
authors.affiliation: Nordic Cochrane Centre, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Peter C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Gøtzsche
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Leiden University Hospital, Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jan P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Vandenbroucke
mesh_terms: D035843:Biomedical Research; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D057189:Checklist; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D015340:Epidemiologic Research Design; D006801:Humans; D064887:Observational Studies as Topic; D012107:Research Design; D058028:Research Report / Q000592:standards*