Table A1.

Modified CLEAR-NPT quality assessment tool questions.

	Criterion	Yes	No	Unclear
1	Was the generation of allocation sequences (group assignment procedure) adequate?
2	Was the treatment allocation concealed?
3	Were details of the intervention administered to each group stated or made available?
4	Were care providers’ experience or skills in each arm (group) appropriate?
5	Was participant adherence or compliance assessed quantitatively?
6	Were participants adequately blinded? If NO, please go to 6.1.1 and 6.1.2. If YES, please go to 7
6.1.1	Were other treatments and care (i.e., co-interventions) the same in each randomized group?
6.1.2	Were withdrawals and lost-to-follow-up the same in each randomized group?
7	Were care providers for the participants adequately blinded? If NO, please go to 7.1.1 and 7.1.2. If YES, please go to 8.
7.1.1	Were all other treatments and care (co-interventions) the same in each randomized group?
7.1.2	Were withdrawals and lost-to-follow-up the same in each randomized group?
8	Were outcome assessors adequately blinded to assess the primary outcomes?
8.1	If outcome assessors were not adequately blinded, were specific methods used to avoid ascertainment bias (systematic differences in outcome assessment)?
9	Was the follow-up schedule the same in each group? (parallel design)
10	Were the treatment and control group comparable at entry? (Any significant differences at baseline?)
11	Were the main outcomes analyzed according to the intention-to-treat principle?
Total	Total Scores (number of Yes)

Quality score = total number of Yes/total number of applied criteria.