Table 3.

Quality of key methodological items (n = 26)

Item	Criteria	Description	Number of positive trialsa	%	Cohen’s к coefficient	95% CI
8	Randomization	Description of the method used to generate the random sequence	14	54	0.68	0.39 to 0.97
9 and 10	Allocation concealment and implementation	Description of the method used to implement the random allocation sequence assuring the concealment until interventions are assigned	3	12	0.84	0.52 to 1.15
11	Blinding	Whether or not participants, those administering the interventions, or those assessing the outcomes were blinded to group assignment	3	12	1.00	1.00
15	Baseline data	An outline of baseline demographic and clinical characteristics of each group	11	42	0.92	0.77 to 1.07
16	Intent-to-treat analysis	No. of participants in each group included in each analysis and whether it was done by “intention to treat”	3	12	0.71	0.32 to 1.10

^aPositive trials, the information for each item was stated so 1 point was given