Table 3.

Risk of bias assessment using RTI Item Bank tool

Item	Dimension of bias	Keat et al. [29]	Rich et al. [30]	Carter et al. [31]
Is the study design prospective, retrospective, or mixed?	Selection bias; performance bias; detection bias	Prospective	Prospective	Prospective
Are critical inclusion/exclusion criteria clearly stated?	Selection bias	Partially	Yes	Yes
Are the inclusion/exclusion criteria measured using valid and reliable measures?	Information bias	Partially	Partially	Partially
Is the intervention or exposure clearly described in enough detail?	Performance bias	Partially	Partially	Partially
Are the important outcomes pre-specified by the researchers?	Reporting bias	Partially	Partially	Yes
Are interventions/exposures assessed using valid and reliable measures, implemented consistently across all study participants?	Information bias	Partially	Partially	Partially
Are primary outcomes assessed using valid and reliable measures, implemented consistently across all study participants?	Information bias	Cannot determine	Yes	Partially
Is the length of time following the intervention/exposure sufficient to support the conclusions of the study regarding primary outcomes?	Attrition bias	Cannot determine	Partially	Partially
Did attrition from any group exceed 20 percent?	Attrition bias	Cannot determine	Yes	Yes
In cases of high loss to follow-up, is the impact assessed?	Attrition bias	Cannot determine	No	No
Are any primary outcomes missing from the results?	Reporting bias	Yes	No	No
Are the statistical methods used to assess the primary benefit outcomes appropriate to the data?	Precision	Cannot determine	Yes	Yes
Is the source of funding identified?	Reporting bias	Yes	Yes	Yes
Are results believable taking study limitations into consideration?	Overall study quality	No	Partially	Partially
Overall judgement on risk of bias	-	High risk of bias	Medium risk of bias	Medium risk of bias