Abstract

Descriptive observational studies (DOE) constitute at least 70% of the published articles in various scientific journals in the field of surgery, and despite this, there are no instruments to guide writers and to assist reviewers in the result report with DOE. The aim of this study is to design and build a checklist for reporting results with EOD. Two-stage study with qualitative methodology. In a first stage, a proposal was designed, by collecting items and domains from an extensive review of the literature. In the second one, an instrument was developed by applying reduction items and domains through a panel of 45 experts in research methodology, clinical academics, reviewers and editors of biomedical journals, thereby applying facade and content validity. The items and domains incorporated into the final instrument were those which achieved over 80% agreement between the participants (36 of 45). In this way an instrument composed of 19 items and grouped into four domains was created. A checklist that will help to report the results using DOE was designed and built.