Table 3.

Quality appraisal of quantitative studies (non-randomized controlled trials)

Criteria	(Mohebbi et al., 2019)	(Kim et al., 2019)	(Al-Hashmi et al., 2018)	(Rokni et al., 2022)
Clear research question(s)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Collected data addresses the research questions	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Participants representative of the target population	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Measurements appropriate regarding both the outcome and intervention (or exposure	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Complete outcome data	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Confounders accounted for in the design and analysis?	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
During study period, intervention administered (or exposure occurred) as intended	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes