Basic Characteristics And Application Status Of Reporting Guidelines In The Field Of Public Health

Background: Medical research is an evolving and progressive field,the results of which not only impact healthcare and population health,but also have important implications for the development of health policy and guidelines.Reporting specifications,which are checklists,flowcharts,or structured texts specific to a particular type of research used to standardize investigators’ reporting of their findings,play a critical role in improving the quality and transparency of medical research reporting.In recent years,even though more and more reporting specifications have been developed,their application in practice is unclear,and there is a lack of systematic research in public health in particular.Objectives:(1)To understand the basic characteristics,types of application,reporting content,and current status of use of reporting guidelines in the field of public health,with a view to providing suggestions and references for the future use and development of reporting guidelines in the field of public health.(2)To analyze the citation of reporting guidelines in English and Chinese journals in the field of public health,and to focus on the facilitating and hindering factors for the implementation of reporting guidelines in the field of public health,with a view to providing suggestions and references for the implementation and promotion of reporting guidelines in the field of public health.(3)To understand the degree of understanding and application of reporting guidelines by professionals in the field of public health in China,and to focus on the facilitating and hindering factors in the implementation of reporting guidelines.METHODS:(1)The basic information and main information of the included reporting guidelines were extracted and analyzed by surveying the existing reporting guidelines in public health on the EQUATOR website,and the citation frequencies of the included reporting guidelines were collected through the Web of Science website,and descriptive statistics and summary analysis were conducted for the basic information and citation frequencies of the reporting guidelines.(2)Based on the Web of Science database,CNKI and Wanfang Data Knowledge Service Platform,we screened out English and Chinese journals in the field of public health,and analyzed the citation of reporting specifications in journals in the field of public health by reading the submission requirements of journals and other documents in detail.(3)Questionnaires were used to select a convenient sample of practitioners in the public health industry in China(public health physicians,teachers and postgraduates from universities in the field of public health and other related personnel)The survey was conducted to find out the cognition rate and actual usage of reporting guidelines in public health among public health practitioners in China.Results:(1)After systematic review of the reporting guidelines database on the EQUATOR website,82 reporting guidelines in public health were included according to the set exclusion criteria.73(89.02%)were published after 2010.In terms of country/region of development,the United States led the most reporting codes with 26(31.712%),followed by the United Kingdom(23,28.05%),and only 2(2.44%)from China.82 studies were cited 53,660 times overall,with the majority of reporting codes in public health cited less than 100 times(64.63%).STROBE was the most frequently cited reporting specification with 17,469 citations.(2)By systematically screening the list of journals in public health disciplines in CNKI,Wanfang and Web of Science databases,a total of 321 journals were included,of which 127(39.56%)were in Chinese and 194(60.44%)were in English.The 194 English journals included were founded from 1901 to 2021.The United States and the United Kingdom are the top publishing countries,each accounting for 35.05%(68 journals)and 32.47%(63 journals)of the English-language journals,with only one English-language journal(Biomedical and Environmental Sciences)included in China.Elsevier is the publisher with the most journals included,with 22(11.34%)journals Elsevier was the most included publisher with 22(11.34%)journals,followed by Springer Publishing(14,7.22%),and only 1(0.52%)journal from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention in the field of public health was included in China.The 127 Chinese journals included were founded from 1950 to 2018.The Chinese Society of Preventive Medicine had the most journals(25,19.69%),followed by the Chinese Medical Association(13,10.2%).Of the 321 journals in public health included in the analysis,a total of 98(31.15%)used reporting guidelines,including 85 English and 15 Chinese journals.A total of 33 reporting codes were mentioned in these 98 journals,and the most cited reporting code was CONSORT,which was mentioned 78 times in total,with each journal mentioning at least one reporting code.A total of 35 journals mentioned EQUATOR Collaborative Network,all of them are English journals.(3)A total of 260 questionnaires were distributed,and 251 valid questionnaires were answered,with a response rate of 96.54%.A total of 251 participants were surveyed,including 193 public health practitioners and 58 public health graduate students.21 of the 51 respondents(8.37%)indicated that they were very aware of the reporting guidelines,and 161 respondents(64.14%)indicated that they were partially aware of the reporting guidelines.The highest knowledge of reporting guidelines in public health were MOOSE(53.78%)for Meta-analysis of observational epidemiological studies and TREND(53.39%)for non-randomized controlled trials.Reading relevant books and journal literature was the most common way(169,67.33%)of understanding the reporting guidelines.The most important problem in the use of reporting specifications was that "the entries were too complex to understand"(20.75%),and it was generally suggested that the implementation of reporting specifications could be facilitated by "increasing publicity,training and promotion"(36.36%).The most important problem was that the entries were too complicated to understand(20.75%).Conclusions:(1)The number of reporting guidelines is large,but the number of public health-related reporting guidelines developed in China is very small.It is recommended that cognition and attention to the development of reporting guidelines should be strengthened.(2)The adoption rate of reporting guidelines by journals is low,especially for Chinese journals.It is necessary to strengthen the importance and adoption of reporting codes by journal management.(3)The cognition and use of reporting standards among scholars in the field of public health in China is not high,and there is a lack of corresponding learning channels.Additional training and courses and tools are needed to facilitate the implementation of reporting standards.