Table 3.

Assessments of quantitative studies

Assessment	Comparison group present*	Specification of results†	Number
No evidence of harm	Yes	Gives frequency and severity of psychological state; no statistical difference with comparison group	AAA: 0 PCa: 423–25 52 Total: 4
Possible evidence of harm	None	Can give mean or frequency and severity; psychological measure shows clear problems	AAA: 122 PCa: 939–44 47–49 Total: 10
Definite evidence of harm	Yes	Can give mean or frequency and severity; statistically significantly worse than comparison group	AAA: 121 PCa: 626 36 37 45 46 50 Total: 7
Uncertain evidence of harm	None	The results only give mean with uncertainty whether psychological measure shows clear problems	AAA: 318–20 PCa: 1134–38 38–42 51 Total: 14

*May be prediagnosis, prescreening, screen negative, population norm and unscreened group.

†May or may not use condition-specific measure of psychological state; may or may not use representative population.

AAA, abdominal aortic aneurysm; PCa, prostate cancer.