Methodological Quality of Studies of Endstage Renal Disease in Lupus Nephritis, 1970 to 2015

Objective. To examine trends in methodological quality of studies of endstage renal disease risk in lupus nephritis, 1970-2015. Methods. We assessed quality using the Newcastle-Ottawa scale for observational studies, and the Cochrane Collaboration's risk-of-bias tool for trials. Results. In observational studies, description of enrollment criteria was high but decreased over time. Adequacy of followup was low but improved. Inception cohorts and community-based studies were uncommon. Trials had low risk of bias in blinding and selective outcome reporting but most had unclear risks in sequence generation and allocation concealment. Conclusion. Methodological quality was mixed, with limited improvement over time.