Michael A Scaffidi1, Nikko Gimpaya1, Juana Li1, Rishi Bansal1, Yash Verma1, Karam Elsolh1, Gemma M Donn1, Abhishek Panjwani1, Rishad Khan1, Samir C Grover2. 1. Faculty of Health Sciences (Scaffidi), School of Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, Ont.; Division of Gastroenterology (Scaffidi, Gimpaya, Li, Bansal, Verma, Elsolh, Donn, Panjwani, Khan, Grover), St. Michael's Hospital, and Department of Medicine (Khan, Grover), University of Toronto; Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute (Grover), Toronto, Ont. 2. Faculty of Health Sciences (Scaffidi), School of Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, Ont.; Division of Gastroenterology (Scaffidi, Gimpaya, Li, Bansal, Verma, Elsolh, Donn, Panjwani, Khan, Grover), St. Michael's Hospital, and Department of Medicine (Khan, Grover), University of Toronto; Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute (Grover), Toronto, Ont. samir.grover@utoronto.ca.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The quality of case reports, which are often the first reported evidence for a disease, may be negatively affected by a rush to publication early in a pandemic. We aimed to determine the completeness of reporting (COR) for case reports published on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). METHODS: We conducted a systematic search of the PubMed database for all single-patient case reports of confirmed COVID-19 published from Jan. 1 to Apr. 24, 2020. All included case reports were assessed for adherence to the CARE (Case Report) 31-item checklist, which was used to create a composite COR score. The primary outcome was the mean COR score assessed by 2 independent raters. Secondary outcomes included whether there was a change in overall COR score with certain publication factors (e.g., publication date) and whether there was a linear relation between COR and citation count and between COR scores and social media attention. RESULTS: Our search identified 196 studies that were published in 114 unique journals. We found that the overall mean COR score was 54.4%. No one case report included all of the 31 CARE checklist items. There was no significant correlation between COR with either citation count or social media attention. INTERPRETATION: We found that the overall COR for case reports on COVID-19 was poor. We suggest that journals adopt common case-reporting standards to improve reporting quality.
BACKGROUND: The quality of case reports, which are often the first reported evidence for a disease, may be negatively affected by a rush to publication early in a pandemic. We aimed to determine the completeness of reporting (COR) for case reports published on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). METHODS: We conducted a systematic search of the PubMed database for all single-patient case reports of confirmed COVID-19 published from Jan. 1 to Apr. 24, 2020. All included case reports were assessed for adherence to the CARE (Case Report) 31-item checklist, which was used to create a composite COR score. The primary outcome was the mean COR score assessed by 2 independent raters. Secondary outcomes included whether there was a change in overall COR score with certain publication factors (e.g., publication date) and whether there was a linear relation between COR and citation count and between COR scores and social media attention. RESULTS: Our search identified 196 studies that were published in 114 unique journals. We found that the overall mean COR score was 54.4%. No one case report included all of the 31 CARE checklist items. There was no significant correlation between COR with either citation count or social media attention. INTERPRETATION: We found that the overall COR for case reports on COVID-19 was poor. We suggest that journals adopt common case-reporting standards to improve reporting quality.