Table 3 Quality assessment of observational studies examining risk of hearing loss in premature infants
Study (Year) | Risk of Bias (Low, Moderate, Serious, Critical, No Information) | Comments |
|---|---|---|
Mjoen (1982) [19] | Critical | Critical risk of bias in classification of interventions domain: ototoxic medications grouped as one variable (i.e., furosemide not identified as a single risk factor). |
Salamy (1989) [20] | Moderate | Confounding well-accounted for by assessing “neonatal status” based on duration of hospitalization, days of assisted ventilation, radiography and lab results, etc. |
Brown (1991) [21] | Serious | Serious risk of bias in confounding domain: Selection of variables included in the multivariate analyses based solely on results of univariate analyses and did not adequately account for severity of illness in each group. |
Borradori (1997) [22] | Moderate | Confounding well-accounted for by the creation of two control groups based on BW/GA and perinatal complications related to risk of ototoxicity. |
Ertl (2001) [23] | Serious | Serious risk of bias in confounding domain: infants not matched on severity of illness or co-morbidities associated with hearing loss. |
Rais-Bahrami (2004) [24] | Serious | Serious risk of bias in confounding domain: no adjustment for perinatal factors related to hearing loss. |
Xoinis (2007) [25] | Serious | Serious risk of bias in confounding domain: infants not matched on severity of illness or co-morbidities associated with hearing loss. |
Coenraad (2011) [26] | Serious | Serious risk of bias in confounding domain: infants not matched on severity of illness or co-morbidities associated with hearing loss. |
Martinez-Cruz (2012) [27] | Serious | Serious risk of bias in confounding domain: infants not matched on severity of illness or co-morbidities associated with hearing loss. |
Rastogi (2013) [28] | Moderate | Confounding well-accounted for in multivariate analyses, which adjusted for GA, BW, and other known perinatal risk factors for hearing loss. |
Wang (2017) [29] | Critical | Critical risk of bias in classification of interventions domain: ototoxic medications grouped as one variable (i.e., furosemide not identified as a single risk factor). |