Table 4: Quality of Evidence of Included Studies*.
| Study Design | Level of Evidence |
Number of Eligible Studies | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Any Multidisciplinary Team |
At least a Nurse, Dietician, and Physician |
At least a Pharmacist and Primary Care Physician |
||
| Large RCT, systematic review of RCTs | 1 | 31 | 5 | 3 |
| Large RCT unpublished but reported to an international scientific meeting |
1(g) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Small RCT | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Small RCT unpublished but reported to an international scientific meeting |
2(g) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Non-RCT with contemporaneous controls | 3a | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Non-RCT with historical controls | 3b | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Non-RCT presented at international conference | 3(g) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Surveillance (database or register) | 4a | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Case series (multisite) | 4b | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Case series (single site) | 4c | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Retrospective review, modeling | 4d | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Case series presented at international conference | 4(g) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
†
For each included study, levels of evidence were assigned according to a ranking system based on a hierarchy proposed by Goodman. (19) An additional designation “g” was added for preliminary reports of studies that have been presented at international scientific meetings. Non-RCT, clinical trial that is not randomized, e.g. a cohort study; RCT, randomized controlled trial.