L. E. Newton1,2,3, M. Predovic1,2, S. L. Wong1,2 1Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, USA 2Dartmouth Health, Department Of Surgery, Lebanon, NH, USA 3White River Junction VA Medical Center, Department Of Surgery, White River Junction, VT, USA
Introduction:
A survey is a questionnaire used to extract information. The volume of literature using survey methodology has proliferated in recent years. Increasing numbers of surveys are published in the surgical literature, but the quality of these surveys and of reporting on survey research remains unknown.
Methods:
We conducted a comprehensive review of the surgical survey literature (01/2022-07/2023). We included articles which (1) reported data gleaned from a survey, (2) were published in an English language journal, (3) targeted survey respondents in the United States or Canada, and (4) pertained to general surgery specialties. We assessed the quality of the survey reports using the Checklist for Reporting Of Survey Studies (CROSS) guidelines1, a consensus-based tool that is a recognized reporting guideline by the Equator (Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research) Network (www.equator-network.org), a global initiative led by researchers and journal editors. CROSS items focus on ensuring surveys are reported reliably, transparently, and in a manner that facilitates reproducibility. Articles were evaluated for concordance with CROSS using a dichotomous (yes/no) scale by two independent reviewers.
Results:
Initial literature search yielded 481 articles; 57 articles were included in the study based on inclusion criteria. Mean response rate was 37% (range 0.62-98%). The vast majority of surveys were administered electronically (n=50, 87.8%). The most common survey topic was surgeon burnout/mental health (n=14, 24.6%), and other common topics centered around surgery culture and training. Only 12 studies pertained to clinical practice. No publications adhered to all 40 CROSS items; on average, publications met 60% of items applicable to that study. Articles were most likely to adhere to reporting criteria for title and abstract (mean adherence 94.7% of articles), introduction (99.1%), and discussion (91.8%). Articles were least adherent to items related to methodology (42.9%), which included study design, data collection, sample characteristics, survey administration, study preparation, ethical considerations, and statistical analysis. Articles were moderately adherent to items related to results (76.3%), such as respondent characteristics, descriptive data, and main findings (Figure). Only 6 articles cited CROSS guidelines or another standardized survey reporting tool (10.5%).
Conclusion:
Our analysis demonstrates that the CROSS reporting guidelines for survey research have not been adopted widely. Surveys reported in the surgical literature may be of variable quality. Increased adherence to guidelines could improve the development and dissemination of surveys done by surgeons.
1. Sharma A, et al. PMID 33886037
