Adherence to the Standards for Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (STARD): a survey of four journals in laboratory medicine

Fei-Fei Zheng; Wei-Hong Shen; Fang Gong; Zhi-De Hu; Giuseppe Lippi; Ana-Maria Šimundić; Patrick M M Bossuyt; Mario Plebani; Kaiping Zhang

doi:10.21037/atm-21-1665

Adherence to the Standards for Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (STARD): a survey of four journals in laboratory medicine

Ann Transl Med. 2021 Jun;9(11):918. doi: 10.21037/atm-21-1665.

Authors

Fei-Fei Zheng¹, Wei-Hong Shen¹, Fang Gong¹, Zhi-De Hu^{2

3}, Giuseppe Lippi⁴, Ana-Maria Šimundić⁵, Patrick M M Bossuyt⁶, Mario Plebani⁷, Kaiping Zhang^{8

9}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Laboratory Medicine, the Affiliated Hospital of Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China.
² Department of Laboratory Medicine, the Affiliated Hospital of Inner Mongolia Medical University, Hohhot, China.
³ Journal of Laboratory and Precision Medicine Editorial Office, Guangzhou, China.
⁴ Section of Clinical Biochemistry, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.
⁵ Department of Medical Laboratory Diagnostics, University Hospital "Sveti Duh", Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, Zagreb University, Zagreb, Croatia.
⁶ Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
⁷ Department of Medicine, University of Padova, and Department of Integrated Diagnostics, University-Hospital of Padova, Padova, Italy.
⁸ Editorial Office, AME Publishing Company, Hong Kong, China.
⁹ School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK.

Abstract

Background: The Standards for Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (STARD) statement has been updated in 2015. Many diagnostic test accuracy (DTA) studies have been published in medical laboratory journals, but their adherence to the updated STARD statement remains unknown.

Methods: We searched the PubMed database to verify studies published in 4 laboratory journals, including Clinical Chemistry, Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, Clinica Chimica Acta, and Clinical Biochemistry, in 2019. DTA studies were identified and their adherence to the STARD statement was assessed.

Results: A total of 45 studies were included in this analysis. Overall, 18 out of 34 STARD items were reported. The items (adherence rate) of sample size estimation (4%), adverse events (9%), protocol (9%), registration (16%), missing value (22%), indeterminate results (18%), and cross-tabulation (22%) were the most frequently unreported items.

Conclusions: Adherence to the STARD statement in DTA articles published in laboratory medicine seems as yet unsatisfactory. Our study emphasizes the necessity to improve the reporting quality of DTA studies published in medical laboratory journals.

Keywords: STARD statement; diagnostic test accuracy (DTA); laboratory medicine.