Table 3.

Strength of evidence from quantitative data

Health domain	Quality*	Quantity†	Consistency‡	Strength of evidence§
Pain and injury	One fair, eight poor	9	Consistent: 100% associate WC and pain	Moderate
Fatigue and energy expenditure	One fair, six poor	7	Consistent: 100% associate WC and increased fatigue	Moderate
Stress, mental well-being or life satisfaction	One good, one fair, three poor	5	Inconsistent: 3 (60%) associate WC and increased stress; 2 (40%) found no significant effect of reduced water collection time on mental health or life satisfaction	Inconclusive
Perinatal health	Three fair	3	Consistent: 100% associate WC and reduced perinatal health or care access	Moderate
Social vulnerability	One good, one fair, five poor	7	Consistent: 100% associate WC and social vulnerability or risks	Moderate
General health	One fair, three poor	4	Inconsistent: 3 (75%) associate WC and poorer health	Inconclusive

*Quality score based on National Institutes of Health tool, qualitative and quantitative data of mixed methods studies rated separately, such that total number of rating scores can be greater than number of studies.

†Number of studies.

‡Inconsistent: if ≤75% of the available studies reported the same conclusion.

§Evidence based on quality, number and the outcome of studies: strong=provided by generally consistent findings in multiple high-quality quantitative studies; moderate=generally consistent findings in one high-quality quantitative study and one low-quality study, or in multiple low-quality studies; inconclusive evidence=only one study available or inconsistent findings in multiple studies.²⁰

WC, water carriage.