Item	Cohen‐Mansfield 2007	Cohen‐Mansfield 2012a	Kolanowski 2011	Richards 2005	Van Haitsma 2015	Wenborn 2013
Allocation sequence adequately generated	No	Yes	Yes	Unclear	Yes*	Yes*
Allocation adequately concealed	Unclear	Unclear	Yes	Unclear	No*	Yes*
Participants identified before randomisation	Unclear	Unclear	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
If no: no evidence for biased selection of participants	‐	‐	‐	‐	‐	‐
Inclusion/exclusion criteria for participants clearly defined	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Inclusion/exclusion criteria for clusters clearly defined	No	No	n. a.	n. a.	n. a.	Yes*
Adequate sample size calculation	No	Unclear	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Absence of relevant differences between groups after randomisation	Yes	Yes	Unclear	Unclear	Yes	Yes
Loss to follow‐up less 5% of participants	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Were incomplete data adequately explained	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
All groups treated equally, except of intervention or control	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Primary outcome clearly stated?	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes*
Participants blinded to group allocation	Unclear	Yes	Yes	Unclear	Yes*	Unclear
Personnel blinded to group allocation	No	No	Yes	Unclear	No	Yes
Outcome assessors blinded to group allocation	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes
Data collection started immediately after randomisation	Unclear	Unclear	Yes*	Unclear	Varied*	Unclear
Intention to treat analysis	Unclear	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes*	Yes
Complete reporting of outcome (as scheduled)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Methods of analysis adequate for cluster‐randomised trials	No	No	n. a.	n. a.	n. a.	Yes
Conflicts of interest mentioned	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
* Items marked with an asterisk have been answered by the study authors after personal request