Table 1.

Number and types of studies at each evidence level

Levels of Evidence - Effectiveness		Number of Sources
Level 1 – Experimental Designs	Level 1.a – Systematic review of Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs)
	Level 1.b – Systematic review of RCTs and other study designs
	Level 1.c – RCT	11
	Level 1.d – Pseudo-RCTs
Level 2 – Quasi-experimental Designs	Level 2.a – Systematic review of quasi-experimental studies
	Level 2.b – Systematic review of quasi-experimental and other lower study designs
	Level 2.c – Quasi-experimental prospectively controlled study	5
	Level 2.d – Pre-test – post-test or historic/retrospective control group study	5
Level 3 – Observational – Analytic Designs	Level 3.a – Systematic review of comparable cohort studies
	Level 3.b – Systematic review of comparable cohort and other lower study designs
	Level 3.c – Cohort study with control group
	Level 3.d – Case – controlled study	1
	Level 3.e – Observational study without a control group	19*
Level 4 – Observational – Descriptive Studies	Level 4.a – Systematic review of descriptive studies
	Level 4.b – Cross-sectional study
	Level 4.c – Case series
	Level 4.d – Case study	3
Level 5 – Expert Opinion and Bench Research	Level 5.a – Systematic review of expert opinion
	Level 5.b – Expert consensus
	Level 5.c – Bench research/ single expert opinion
Total		44 (43 total sources)

^*One source reported a study and a pilot study in the same publication, both have been rated on the JBI