Risk of Bias Evaluation of Cross-Sectional Studies: Adaptation of the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale.

Abstract

Cross-sectional studies are widely utilized in medical research to estimate prevalence and examine associations. As such, they can serve as a significant source of data for systematic reviews. However, specific considerations are necessary when evaluating the risk of bias (RoB) of cross-sectional studies, as several potential biases can undermine the validity, reliability, and robustness of their findings. This article introduces a novel, context-specific tool designed to assess the RoB of cross-sectional studies for use in systematic reviews. The proposed tool represents an adaptation of the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS), originally developed for cohort and case-control studies. Similar to the original NOS, the new tool (named "NOS-xs") features a nine-star rating system to assess six specific items across three main domains: (i) study sample selection, (ii) assessment of exposure(s) and outcome(s), and (iii) confounding factors. Based on the number of awarded stars, studies are categorized as having high (0-3 stars), moderate (4-6 stars), or low (7-9 stars) RoB. The NOS-xs tool maintains consistency with the original NOS tool, facilitating its integration into systematic reviews that also include cohort and/or case-control studies. While the NOS-xs is suited to analytical cross-sectional studies (i.e., association studies), a simplified version ("NOS-xs2") is also introduced for descriptive cross-sectional studies (i.e., prevalence studies). The NOS-xs2 features a four-star rating system to assess three of the six specific items included in the NOS-xs. To streamline their application, spreadsheets for both NOS-xs and NOS-x2 are provided.