Table 5.

Methods used in SRs and MAs to synthesize the available evidence from the primary studies.

Methods		Reviews	n
Qualitative methods (n=15)
	Reported outcomes	[30,32,35-37,40-43,45,49]	11
	Levels of evidence (study design)	[29,32,37,48]	4a
	Vote counting (intervention effect)	[29]	1a
	Telemonitoring modality	[26,33]	2
Meta-analytic methods (n=9)
Summary statistics
	Risk ratios (for dichotomous data)	[27,28,31,34]	4
	Risk difference (for dichotomous data)	[27]	1b
	Mean difference (for continuous data)	[38,39,46]	3
	Standardized mean difference (for continuous data)	[44,47]	2
Heterogeneity
	Assessment of heterogeneity by means of a statistical test	[27,28,31,34,38,39,44,46,47]	9
	Reported Cochran’s Q statistic (Chi-square test) of heterogeneity	[27,28,31,44,46,47]	6
	Reported I2 test of heterogeneity	[27,28,31,34,38,39,46,47]	8
Statistical model
	Random effects meta-analysis	[27,34,38,47]	4
	Fixed effect meta-analysis	[28,31,44]	3
Meta-analysis diagnostics
	Subgroup analysis	[34,46,47]	3
	Sensitivity analysis	[31,38]	2

^aIncludes reviews that used two different methods.

^bSame review that used two different summary statistics.