. 2019 Aug 1;19:154. doi: 10.1186/s12911-019-0872-2

Table 2.

Quality analysis of RCT according to the Cochrane Collaboration’s risk of bias tool [20]

Publication	Armstrong (2005) [22]	Schwartz (2009) [23]	Hooker (2011) [24]	Metcalfe (2017) [25]
Criterion	Armstrong (2005) [22]	Schwartz (2009) [23]	Hooker (2011) [24]	Metcalfe (2017) [25]
Adequate sequence generation	+	+	+	+
Adequate allocation concealment	+	?	?	?
Blinding of participants and personnel	(−)^b	(−)^c	(−)^c	–
Blinding of outcome assessors	+	-^a	-^a	-^{a, d}
No incomplete outcome data	?	?	?	?
No selective outcome reporting	+	+	+	+
No other sources of bias	+	+	+	+
RISK OF BIAS	Unclear	High	High	High

+ Met criterion;? Unclear; − Unmet criterion; RCT: randomized controlled trial

^aPatient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) with unblinded patients

^bpatients and outcome assessors blinded, staff not blinded

^cpatients not blinded, blinding of staff not or not completely mentioned

^dresearch assistant blinded but likely that blinding has been broken