Table 3.

Quality assessment of randomized controlled trials (RCTs)

Criteria	Andersen et al.16	Bronfort et al.17	Hall et al.18	Kuijper et al.19	Mongini et al.20	Nikander et al.11	Salo et al.21
Patient selection
A: Were the eligibility criteria specified	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
B1: Was a method of randomization performed	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
B2: Was the treatment allocation concealed	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
C: Were the groups similar at baseline regarding the most important prognostic indicators	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Intervention
D: Were the index and control interventions explicitly described	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
E: Was the care provider blinded to the intervention	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
F: Were co-interventions avoided or comparable	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
G: Was the compliance acceptable in all groups	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
H: Was the patient blinded to intervention	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
Outcome measurement
I: Was the outcome assessor blinded to the intervention	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
J: Were the outcome measures relevant	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
K: Were adverse effects described	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
L: Was the withdrawal/drop-out rate described and acceptable	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
M1: Was a short-term follow-up measurement performed	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
M2: Was a long-term follow-up measurement performed	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes
N: Was the timing of the outcome measurement in both groups comparable	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Statistics
O: Was the sample size for each group described	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
P: Did the analysis include an intention-to-treat analysis	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Q: Were point estimates and measures of variability presented for the primary outcome measures	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Total quality score	16/19	16/19	13/19	12/19	10/19	12/19	12/19
	(84%)	(84%)	(68%)	(63%)	(53%)	(63%)	(63%)

Quality values: <50% (poor), 50–80% (moderate), and >80% (good).²³⁻²⁶