Compliance of published cross-sectional studies on pregnancy decision-making in women living with HIV/AIDS with STROBE statement: a critical appraisal of the literature

Introduction: Critical appraisal is a key step in the process of evidence-based practice.Strong evidence is required for decisions on patient care and policy-making, and high-quality studies are vital for developing the foundation of evidence-based medicine.This study aimed to assess the compliance of published cross-sectional studies regarding pregnancy decision-making in women with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Material and methods:In this critical review, the search was performed through English databases including PubMed, Web of Science, PsycINFO, ProQuest, Scopus and Google Scholar search engine, without a time limit until the end of September 2022 with the keywords of HIV, AIDS, HIV seropositivity, acquired immune deficiency syndrome, women, pregnancy, reproductive health, decisionmaking, contraceptive methods, and family planning.Finally, 38 English articles were critically appraised using the STROBE checklist.The collected data were analyzed with SPSS software (version 22). Results:The overall compliance rate with the STROBE statements was 77.36%.Introduction was the section with the highest level of compliance (98%) and results was the section with the lowest level of compliance (60.69%).27 studies (71.05%), had good and 11 studies (28.94%) had moderate quality.The publication of the STROBE statement has not had a significant effect on the overall quality score of published studies (p = 0.14).Conclusions: It is suggested that not only medical journals use the STROBE statement to evaluate articles but also the researchers adhere to its standard principles when preparing and submitting articles.