7. Quality of evidence ‐ GRADE assessment: long‐term effects of AE versus control comparison.
Quality assessment | Number of participants | Quality | Importance | |||||||
Number of studies | Study design | Risk of bias | Inconsistency | Indirectness | Imprecision | Other comments | AE only | Control | ||
HRQL (follow‐up 12 weeks after end of intervention; assessed with 0‐100 scale, lower is best) | ||||||||||
2 | Randomized trials | Seriousa | Seriousb | Not serious | Seriousc | 60 | 48 | ⊕⊝⊝⊝ very low | CRITICAL | |
Pain intensity (follow‐up 12 weeks after end of intervention to 4 years; assessed with 0‐100 scale, lower is best) | ||||||||||
3 | Randomized trials | Seriousa | Not serious | Not serious | Seriousc | 64 | 70 | ⊕⊕⊝⊝ low | CRITICAL | |
Fatigue (follow‐up from 12 weeks after end of intervention to 4 years; assessed with 0‐100 scale, lower is best) | ||||||||||
2 | Randomized trials | Seriousa | Seriousb | Not serious | Seriousc | 50 | 50 | ⊕⊝⊝⊝ very low | IMPORTANT | |
Stiffness: not measured | ||||||||||
Physical function (follow‐up at 12 weeks after end of intervention; assessed with 0‐100 scale, lower is best) | ||||||||||
1 | Randomized trials | Seriousd | Not serious | Not serious | Seriousc | One study | 30 | 30 | ⊕⊝⊝⊝ very low | IMPORTANT |
All‐cause withdrawal (follow‐up from 12 weeks after end of intervention to 4 years) | ||||||||||
3 | Randomized trials | Seriousa | Not serious | Not serious | Seriousc | 22/92 (23.9%) | 25/84 (29.8%) | ⊕⊕⊝⊝ low | IMPORTANT | |
Adverse events: not reported |
aIssues with allocation, detection, performance, selective reporting, and other biases
bConsiderable heterogeneity in results (I2 = 80%)
cNumber of participants lower than 400 rule of thumb, wide confidence interval
dIssues related to detection bias, performance bias, and selective reporting
AE: aerobic exercise; HRQL: health‐related quality of life