Table 5.

Strength of Evidence for Trials Comparing Interventions with Family Component to Alternative Family-Involved Interventions or Patient Interventions*

Outcome	Number of studies (n +)	Risk of bias‡	Directness§	Precision∥	Consistency¶	Evidence rating
Physical functioning	4 (637)	Moderate	Direct	Precision indeterminate	Unknown	Insufficient
General psychological functioning	7#(811)	Moderate	Direct	Imprecise	Inconsistent	Low
Social functioning	2 (482)	Moderate	Direct	Precision indeterminate	Unknown	Insufficient
Quality of life-global	2 (482)	High	Direct	Imprecise	Unknown	Insufficient
Depression/anxiety	5# (641)	Moderate	Direct	Imprecise	Consistent	Low
Symptom control/ management	10 (1,845)	Moderate	Direct	Imprecise	Consistent	Low

*Adapted from expanded evidence report, Griffin et al.⁶

⁺Number randomized

^‡Internal validity. Study design and the quality of individual studies included in the review. Study design limitations may bias the estimates of treatment effect (such as lack of allocation concealment, or lack of blinding)

^§Interventions are directly related to health outcomes of interest

^∥The degree of certainty surrounding an estimate of effect for each outcome of interest. Uncertainty of effect does not allow for a clinically useful conclusion, and is unable to rule out an important benefit or harm

^¶The effect sizes from the included studies are similar and have the same direction of effect (positive or negative)

^#Some studies used multiple measures to assess one outcome