Table 3

Quality assessment of studies included (method by Detsky et al19)

		Reference No
		4	5	11	14	23	29	15	24
1
(A) Random allocation	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
(B) Description of randomisation	I	I	A	P	I	I	I	P
(C) Potential bias in treatment assignment	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes
2
(A) Description of outcome measures	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
(B) Criteria objective	P	P	Yes	Yes	Yes	P	P	P
(C) Outcome assessors masked to treatment	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
3
(A) Inclusion/exclusion criteria defined	No	No	P	No	No	P	Yes	Yes
(B) Mention of patients not included	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
4
(A) Therapy described for treatment group	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
(B) Therapy described for control group	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
5 (A)
1 Statistical analysis test stated	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
2 p Value stated	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
(B) Statistical analysis appropriate	Yes	NA	Yes	Yes	P	Yes	Yes	Yes
(C) If negative trial, CI and post hoc power calculations performed	NA	NA	No	No	NA	NA	NA	NA
(D) Sample size justification before study	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Final score	0.39	0.46	0.73	0.6	0.53	0.42	0.67	0.71

A=adequate; P=partial; I=inadequate; CI=confidence intervals; NA=not applicable.
↵Sample size limitations are discussed.