Table 1.
The Cochrane Collaboration’s Tool for Assessing the Risk of Bias [28]
| Domain | Support of judgement | Review author’s judgement |
|---|---|---|
| Sequence generation | Describe the method used to generate the allocation sequence in sufficient detail to allow for an assessment of whether it should produce comparable groups. | Selection bias (biased allocation to interventions) due to inadequate generation of a randomized sequence. |
| Allocation concealment | Describe the method used to conceal the allocation sequence in sufficient detail to determine whether intervention allocations could have been foreseen in advance of, or during, enrollment. | Selection bias (biased allocation to interventions) due to inadequate concealment of allocations prior to assignment. |
| Blinding | Describe all measures used, if any, to blind study participants and personnel from knowledge of which intervention a participant received. | Performance bias due to knowledge of the allocated interventions by participants and personnel during the study. |
| Describe all measures used, if any, to blind study outcome assessors from knowledge of which intervention a participant received. | Detection bias due to knowledge of the allocated interventions by outcome assessors. | |
| Incomplete outcome data | Describe the completeness of outcome data for each main outcome, including attrition and exclusions from the analysis. State whether attrition and exclusions were reported, the numbers in each intervention group, reasons for attrition/exclusions where reported, and any re-inclusions in analyses performed by the review authors. | Attrition bias due to amount, nature, or handling of incomplete outcome data. |
| Selective reporting | State how the possibility of selective outcome reporting was examined by the review authors, and what was found. | Reporting bias due to selective outcome reporting. |
| Other bias | State any important concerns about bias not addressed in the other domains in the tool. | Bias due to problems not covered elsewhere in the table. |
| If particular questions/entries were prespecified in the reviews protocol, responses should be provided for each question/entry. |