Table 1.

Basic characteristics of included studies

Study	Country	Treatment duration	Followed-up duration	Arms (No.)	Interventions	Sample sizes	Sex (M/F)	Age (Mean ± SD)
Abbas, Z (2016) [25]	Pakistan	72W	96W	2	IFN + NAs	21	16/5	26.4 ± 6.4
					IFN	19	15/4	27 ± 7.4
Canbakan, B (2006) [26]	Turkey	48W	95W	2	IFN	12	8/4	43.83 ± 8.57
					IFN + NAs	14	7/7	42.5 ± 11.02
Farci, P (1994) [27]	Italy	48W	96W	2	IFN	28	22/6	35 ± 8.4
					No treatment	14	13/1	37 ± 12
Gaudin, J. L (1995) [28]	France	48W	24W	2	IFN	11	11/0	29.6 ± 17.3
					No treatment	11	11/0	34.8 ± 39
Niro, G. A (2006) [29]	Italy	72W	96W	2	IFN	16	8/8	45.4 ± 8.8
					IFN + NAs	22	15/7	43 ± 9.6
Porres, J. C (1989) [30]	Spain	24W	60W	2	IFN	10	7/3	25.8 ± 9.6
					No treatment	10	8/2	31.2 ± 11.4
Rosina, F (1991) [31]	Italy	48W	96W	2	IFN	31	26/5	30 ± 2
					No treatment	30	28/2	29 ± 2
Rosina, F (1990) [32]	Italy	48W	96W	2	IFN	26	23/3	31.04 (19–41)a
					No treatment	22	21/1	29.16 (18–59)a
Wedemeyer, H (2011) [10]	Germany, Turkey, Greece	48W	72W	3	IFN + NAs	31	20/11	42 (23–59)b
					IFN	29	17/12	38 (17–62)b
					NAs	30	19/11	33 (21–55)b
Wedemeyer, H (2019) [11]	Germany, Greece, Romania, Turkey	96W	365W	2	IFN + NAs	59	38/21	38.1 ± 12.3
					IFN	61	41/20	42.1 ± 10.3
Wranke, A (2020) [33]	Germany, Greece, Turkey	48W	24W	3	IFN + NAs	19	NA	NA
					IFN	20	NA	NA
					NAs	21	NA	NA
Yurdaydin, C (2008) [23]	Turkey	48W	72W	3	NAs	17	15/2	38 (20–55)b
					IFN + NAs	14	10/4	35 (20–48)b
					IFN	8	8/0	46 (38–67)b
Hepatera Ltd. (2016) [22]	Russia	48W	72W	4	IFN	15	5/10	34.7 ± 7.1
					BLV + IFN	45	30/15	36.5 ± 6.7
					BLV	15	11/4	42 ± 9.6
					BLV + NAs	15	11/4	34.3 ± 7.2
Ltd, H. (2016) [24]	Russia, Germany	24W	48W	2	BLV + NAs	90	59/31	40.7 ± 9.7
					NAs	28	20/8	38.5 ± 8.7

NA Not available, F Female, M Male

^aMean ± SD

^bMedian (range)