Critical appraisal on the reporting of Nested Case-Control Studies according to the STROBE statement

Critical appraisal and optimal use of the article’s findings need to be clear and appropriate during the reporting of the studiers. The Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) statement, is a relatively new statement in order to improve the quality of reporting of observational studies. The aim of this study was to assess the quality of reporting nested case-control studies according to the STROBE statement. In a cross-sectional study we conducted a literature search in these databases SID, Magiran, Irandoc, Iranmedex and Google Scholar using the”nested case-control study and “nested” keywords. We found 1302 articles in the first step. After excluding duplicates and irrelevant articles, 96 articles remained in the study. Finally, with inclusion criteria, including an article with nested case-control study design in the Persian language and publish after publication of the STROBE statement, only 10 articles remained for assessment. The total compliance with the STROBE statement was 65%. The title, abstract and introduction of the articles showed a good quality, but the missing data, confounding factors and sensitivity analyses indicated a poor quality. The quality of reporting nested case-control studies were fairly good. Using STROBE statement for better reporting is recommended by the researches.