Table 4.

Quality appraisal scores for Quantitative Studies

Papers	Grzeskowiak et al. 2016 [23]	Lim et al. 2014 [26]	Murphy et al. 2005 [22]
Question/objective sufficiently described?	2	2	2
Study design evident and appropriate?	2	2	2
Method of subject/comparison group selection or source of information/input variables described and appropriate?	1	2	1
Subject (and comparison group, if applicable) characteristics sufficiently described?	2	2	2
If interventional and random allocation was possible, was it described?	N/A	2	N/A
If interventional and blinding of investigators was possible, was it reported?	N/A	1	N/A
If interventional and blinding of subjects was possible, was it reported?	N/A	2	N/A
Outcome and (if applicable) exposure measure(s) well defined and robust to measurement/misclassification bias? Means of assessment reported?	2	2	2
Sample size appropriate?	2	2	2
Analytic methods described/justified and appropriate?	2	2	2
Some estimate of variance is reported for the main results?	2	2	2
Controlled for confounding?	0	2	1
Results reported in sufficient detail?	2	2	2
Conclusions supported by the results?	2	2	2
Summary score	0.86	0.96	0.91