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. 2011 Dec;55(4):256–268.

Table 4.

Methodological quality scoring method

No. Item Description Hagstromer et al.35 Kelly et al.31 Meyer el al.32 Gutin et al.34 Heyman et al.28 McMurray et al.29 Kelly et al.33 Tan et al.36 Aguilar et al.37 Farpour- Lambert et al.30
1 Hypothesis/aim/objective described? 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
2 Main outcomes to be measured described?1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
3 Characteristcs of patients described? 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 1
4 Interventions of interests clearly described? 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1
5 Distributions of confounders described? 2 2 2 1 2 0 2 0 2 2
6 Main findings clearly described? 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
7 Estimates of random variability in data? 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
8 Important adverse events reported? 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
9 Described patients lost to follow-up? 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
10 Actual probability values reported except where P values <.001? 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1
11 Subjects asked to participate representative of entire population? 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 1
12 Subjects prepared to participate representative of population? 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 1
13 “Staff, places, facilities representative of treatment majority of patients receive?” 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
14 Attempt made to blind subjects? 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
15 Attempt made to blind those measuring the outcomes to intervention? 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
16 “Any of the results based on “”data dredging,”” was this made clear?” 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
17 “Analysis adjust for different lengths of follow-up of patients, or is this time period between the intervention and outcome the same for cases and controls?” 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 1
18 Statistical tests appropriate 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1
19 Compliance with treatments reliable? 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
20 Outcomes measures valid/reliable? 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
21 Patients in intervention groups or cases and controls recruited from the same population? 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0
22 Subjects in different intervention groups or cases and controls recruited over same time period? 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1
23 Subjects randomized to groups? 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
24 Randomized assignments concealed until recruitment was complete? 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1
25 Adjustment for confounding in analyses? 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
26 Losses to follow-up accounted for? 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
27 Sufficient power to detect clinically important effect where P value for differences due to chance is <5% 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 5 0
Total Score out of 32 16/32 15/32 19/32 17/32 16/32 21/32 18/32 15/32 23/32 22/32