OHStat guidelines emphasize clinically meaningful data in oral health research

International Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial ResearchJul 13 2024

The International Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research (IADR) and the American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research (AADOCR) have announced the publication of revised guidelines for adequately reporting findings from oral health research. Overviews and explanations of the new guidelines, called the "OHStat Guidelines," will be published in an upcoming issue of Journal of Dental Research as part of a collaborative effort with The Angle Orthodontics, Journal of Endodontics, Journal of the American Dental Association, and Journal of Oral Maxillofacial Surgery. Additionally, a companion paper will be published in an upcoming issue of JDR Clinical & Translational Research.

Adequate and transparent reporting are necessary for critically appraising published research. Yet, ample evidence suggests that the design, conduct, analysis, interpretation, and reporting of oral health research could be greatly improved. Accordingly, the Task Force on Design and Analysis in Oral Health Research-;statisticians and trialists from academia and industry-;identified the minimum information needed to report and evaluate observational studies and clinical trials in oral health: the OHStat Guidelines. Drafts were circulated to the editors of 85 oral health journals and to Task Force members and sponsors and discussed at a December 2020 workshop attended by 49 researchers.

The guidelines were subsequently revised by the Task Force's writing group. The guidelines draw heavily from the CONSORT, STROBE, and CONSORT harms guidelines and incorporate the SAMPL guidelines for reporting statistics, the CLIP principles for documenting images, and the GRADE indicating the quality of evidence. The guidelines also recommend reporting estimates in clinically meaningful units using confidence intervals, rather than relying on P values. In addition, OHStat introduces 7 new guidelines that concern the text itself, such as checking the congruence between abstract and text, structuring the discussion, and listing conclusions to make them more specific.

These papers represent an important milestone in improving the standards of excellence in dental, oral, and craniofacial research. As such, it is appropriate that their publication is being coordinated across several key journals in the field."

Nick Jakubovics, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Dental Research 

On July 12, Jakubovics will host a live informational webinar, "OHStat: Introducing New Statistical Guidelines for Oral Health Research," which will be broadcast in the IADR Webinar & CE On Demand Library at 1 p.m. EDT (UTC-4).

OHStat does not replace other reporting guidelines, it incorporates those most relevant to dental research into a single document. Manuscripts using the OHStat guidelines will provide more information specific to oral health research.