Table 2.
Quality assessment according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
| Study | Type | 1∗ | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | Quality |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quality assessment tool for controlled intervention studies | ||||||||||||||||
| Black et al., 201426 | PS | X | X | NA | X | X | ✓ | NR | NR | NR | X | ✓ | X | X | X | Poor |
| Donati et al., 202121 | CT | X | X | NA | X | X | X | NR | NR | NR | X | ✓ | X | X | X | Poor |
| Cooper et al., 202018 | RCT | ✓ | ✓ | NA | X | X | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | X | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | X | Fair |
| Bingler et al., 201817 | RCT | ✓ | ✓ | NA | X | X | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | X | Good |
| Zhang et al., 202220 | RCT | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | X | X | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | NR | X | ✓ | ✓ | X | ✓ | Fair |
| Amedro et al., 202416 | RCT | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | X | X | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Good |
| Lin et al., 202119 | RCT | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | X | ✓ | ✓ | X | ✓ | NR | X | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Good |
| Quality assessment tool for observational cohort and cross-sectional studies | ||||||||||||||||
| Kauw et al., 20196 | CSS/CS | ✓ | ✓ | X | ✓ | X | NA | ✓ | X | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | X | ✓ | X | Fair |
| Koole et al., 201924 | CSS/CS | ✓ | ✓ | X | ✓ | X | NA | ✓ | X | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | X | ✓ | X | Fair |
| Nederend et al., 202123 | CSS/CS | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | X | NA | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | X | ✓ | X | Good |
| Stagg et al., 202325 | CSS/CS | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | X | NA | ✓ | X | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | X | ✓ | X | Fair |
| Harahsheh et al., 201622 | CSS/CS | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | X | X | NA | ✓ | X | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | X | ✓ | ✓ | Fair |
| Quality assessment tool for before-after (pre-post) studies with no control group | ||||||||||||||||
| Nashat et al., 202228 | PS | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | X | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | X | X | X | X | X | / | / | Poor |
| Fernie et al., 202329 | PS | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | X | X | ✓ | ✓ | X | X | ✓ | X | X | / | / | Poor |
| Jacobsen et al., 201630 | PS | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | X | X | ✓ | ✓ | X | ✓ | ✓ | X | ✓ | / | / | Fair |
| Khoury et al., 202027 | RCT | ✓ | ✓ | X | X | X | ✓ | ✓ | X | ✓ | X | X | NA | / | / | Poor |
“✓” denotes yes, “X” denotes no, and “/” denotes no given criteria.
CCS/CS, cross-sectional and cohort studies; CT, clinical trials; NA, not applicable; NR, not reported; PS, pilot studies; RCT, randomized controlled trial.
Controlled intervention studies: 1 randomized; 2,3 treatment allocation; 4,5 blinding; 6 group similarity; 7,8 dropout; 9 adherence; 10 avoid other interventions; 11 outcome measures assessment; 12 power calculation; 13 prespecified outcomes; 14 intention-to-treat analysis. Observational cohort and cross-sectional studies: 1 research question; 2,3 study population; 4 eligibility criteria; 5 sample size justification; 6 exposure assessed before outcome; 7 timeframe; 8 level of exposure; 9 exposure measures and assessment; 10 repeated exposure assessment; 11 outcome measures; 12 blinding; 13 follow-up rate; 14 statistical analysis. Before-after (pre-post) studies with no control group: 1 study question; 2 eligibility criteria; 3 study participants representative of clinical populations of interest; 4 all eligible participants enrolled; 5 sample size; 6 intervention clearly described; 7 outcome measures clearly described, valid, and reliable; 8 blinding; 9 follow-up rate; 10 statistical analysis; 11 multiple outcome measures; 12 group-level interventions and individual-level outcome efforts.