Table 2.

Assessment of quality using PEDro item criterion

Internal Validity
Random allocation.
Concealed allocation.
Similarity of baseline on key measures.
Subject blinding.
Therapist blinding.
Assessor blinding.
> 85% follow-up of at least one outcome.
Intention- to- treat analysis.
Interpretability
Between-group statistical comparison for at least 1 key outcome.
Point estimates and measures of variability provided by at least 1 key outcome.

Each of criterions was explicitly judged using: 1 = present or 0 = absent. A quality score (maximum score = 10) was allocated to each individual study. Eligibility criteria and source of participants were also assessed as part of the PEDro scale criterion but were not included in the quality score as per the PEDro scoring system