Skip to main content
. 2019 Mar 6;19:48. doi: 10.1186/s12874-019-0688-x

Table 3.

Main characteristics of the included tools

Characteristics of tools N (%)
Type of tool:
 Scale 23 (96%)
 Checklist 1 (4%)
Number of items:
 1 6 (25%)
 > 1 18 (75%)
Weight of items a:
 Same weight 10 (42%)
 Different weight 2 (8%)
 User defined weight 1 (4%)
 Not applicable 11 (46%)a
Score System Instruction:
 Defined 5 (21%)
 Partially defined 3 (12%)
 Not defined 16 (67%)
Tool development:
 Reported 1 (4%)
 Not reported 23 (96%)
Overall quality assessment b
 Single score 6 (22%)
 Summary score 11 (41%)
 Mean score 6 (22%)
 Sum score 3 (11%)
 Not reported 1 (4%)

aItem weight is not applicable for scale with a single item (n = 6), checklist (n = 1) and for scale including more than one item without a numerical score attached but presenting only a summary score (n = 4)

bThe total number is different because three tools presented more than one way to assess the overall quality and the checklist did not provide an overall score