Journal of clinical epidemiology
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The objective of this systematic review is to investigate the use of Bayesian data analysis in epidemiology in the past decade and particularly to evaluate the quality of research papers reporting the results of these analyses. ⋯ Though available guidance papers concerned with reporting of Bayesian analyses emphasize the importance of transparent prior specification, the results obtained in this systematic review show that these guidance papers are often not used. Additional efforts should be made to increase the awareness of the existence and importance of these checklists to overcome the controversy with respect to the use of Bayesian techniques. The reporting quality in epidemiological literature could be improved by updating existing guidelines on the reporting of frequentist analyses to address issues that are important for Bayesian data analyses.