Extended Data Table 6 Quality Assessment
From: A meta-analysis of loneliness and risk of dementia using longitudinal data from >600,000 individuals
- Instructions to complete NIH Quality Assessment Tool for Observational Cohort studies are at the following webpage: https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health-topics/study-quality-assessment-tools. List of questions: 1. Was the research question or objective in this paper clearly stated? 2. Was the study population clearly specified and defined? 3. Was the participation rate of eligible persons at least 50%? 4. Were all the subjects selected or recruited from the same or similar populations (including the same time period)? Were inclusion and exclusion criteria for being in the study prespecified and applied uniformly to all participants? 5. Was a sample size justification, power description, or variance and effect estimates provided? 6. For the analyses in this paper, were the exposure(s) of interest measured before the outcome(s) being measured? 7. Was the timeframe sufficient so that one could reasonably expect to see an association between exposure and outcome if it existed? 8. For exposures that can vary in amount or level, did the study examine different levels of the exposure as related to the outcome (for example, categories of exposure, or exposure measured as continuous variable)? 9. Were the exposure measures (independent variables) clearly defined, valid, reliable, and implemented consistently across all study participants? 10. Was the exposure(s) assessed more than once over time? 11. Were the outcome measures (dependent variables) clearly defined, valid, reliable, and implemented consistently across all study participants? 12. Were the outcome assessors blinded to the exposure status of participants? 13. Was loss to follow-up after baseline 20% or less? 14. Were key potential confounding variables measured and adjusted statistically for their impact on the relationship between exposure(s) and outcome(s)? Response options: Yes/No; CD = Cannot Determine; NA = Not Applicable; NR = Not Reported. Selected cohorts: HRS = Health and Retirement Study; ELSA = English Longitudinal Study of Ageing; SHARE = Study of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe; TILDA = The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing; MHAS = Mexican Health and Aging Study; KLoSA = Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging; CHARLS = China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study; and HILDA = Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia. For further details on each study see Data Extraction File: https://osf.io/tfphs/. Publications highlighted in grey were selected for supplementary analysis.
