[Development and use of a quality assessment scale specifically constructed for the assessment of studies that...

There are currently many hemodialysis modalities that are believed to be superior to conventional hemodialysis. In order to compare the effectiveness and security of the different hemodialysis techniques a systematic review was carried out. Faced with the fact that the scales available mainly focus on study design and tend to ignore external validity, a quality scale was specifically developed to assess the quality of the studies included in the review. The objective of this article is to introduce the quality assessment scale developed and present the results of its usability and applicability. The following databases were searched in order to identify the studies: MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane, HTA, CRD and others. The articles obtained were selected based on previously established inclusion/exclusion criteria. The scale covers three issues: general aspects of the studies, specific aspects of the studies and patient characteristics. This scale allowed for a more accurate classification of the global quality of the studies and was reproducible. In general, those studies classified as high quality studies received the highest score and those studies classified as low quality studies received the lowest scores. The median value was 5,35 (53,5%). The intraclass correlation coefficient was 0,96. As a conclusion of this work it can be stated that currently available scales have serious limitations for the use in studies that compare different hemodialysis modalities and that the use of a scale specifically constructed for this purpose provides more accurate information on the quality of the evidence which is fundamental to interpret results and generate inferences.