Table 1.

Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

Criteria	Definition, Explanation, or Examples
Inclusion Criteria
Decentralization type	Decentralization is defined as the transfer of government's responsibility from the upper to lower tier of government through various types of fiscal, political, and administrative instruments43 and implies the strengthening of subnational levels of governments to exercise a degree of autonomy from central government with respect to a defined set of functions12
Peer‐reviewed and original research article	Articles published in peer‐reviewed journals Research articles (not commentaries, editorials, book reviews, analytic essays)
Time horizon	Articles published from 2000 to 2016
Quantifiable health indicators	Health system inputs (eg, financial, human, and physical resources) Health system performance (eg, changes in service utilization, changes in service coverage, changes in quality of services) Health outcomes (eg, infant mortality rates, maternal mortality rates, life expectancy)
Study design	Large‐N studies (ie, studies that use a sufficiently large number of subjects where subjects are randomly selected or distributed, and use inferential statistics for analyses) Randomized control trials (should any exist) Before‐and‐after study with control groups (eg, difference‐in‐difference, panel data) Before‐and‐after study without control groups (eg, repeated cross‐section) Cross‐sectional study with comparison groups (eg, matching, instrumental variables) Cross‐sectional study with statistical adjustments to address various sources of endogeneity bias
Low‐ or middle‐income country setting	Countries categorized as low and middle income by the World Bank
Exclusion Criteria
Decentralization type	Deconcentration, delegation, and privatization
High‐income country setting	OECD countries Countries categorized as high income by the World Bank
Non‐English language	Studies published in Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese, etc