Methodological guidelines for the estimation of attributable mortality using a prevalence-based method: the STREAMS-P tool

Abstract

Background: There is evidence of strong links between exposure to different risk factors and life-threatening diseases. Assessing the burden of a risk factor on the population's mortality due to a given disease provides a clear picture of these links. The estimation of attributable mortality to a risk factor is the most widely used procedure for doing this. Although different methods are available to estimate attributable mortality, the prevalence-based methodology is the most frequent. The main objective of this study is to develop guidelines and checklists to STrengthen the design and REporting of Attributable Mortality Studies using a Prevalence-based method (STREAMS-P) and also to assess the quality of an already published study which uses this methodology. Methods: The design of the guideline and checklists has been done in two phases. A development phase, where we set recommendations based on the review of the literature, and a validation phase, where we validated our recommendations against other published studies that have estimated attributable mortality using a prevalence-based method. Results: We have developed and tested a guideline that includes the information required to perform a prevalence-based attributable mortality study to a given risk factor; a checklist of aspects that should be present when a report or a paper on attributable mortality is written or interpreted and a checklist of quality control criteria for reports or papers estimating attributable mortality. Conclusion: To our knowledge, the STREAMS-P is the first set of criteria specifically created to assess the quality of such studies and it could be valuable for authors and readers interested in performing attributable mortality studies or interpreting their reliability.