Table 2. Quality assessment of non-randomized controlled trials and pre-post interventional studies.
| Author | Design | MINORS items | In the case of comparative studies | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. A stated aim of the study | 2. Inclusion of consecutive patients | 3. Prospective collection of data | 4. Endpoint appropriate to the study aim | 5. Unbiased evaluation of endpoints | 6. Follow-up period appropriate to the major endpoint. | 7. Loss to follow up not exceeding 5% | 8. A control group having the gold standard intervention | 9. Contemporary groups | 10. Baseline equivalence of groups |
11. Prospective calculation of the sample size | 12. Statistical analyses adapted to the study design | |||
| Grünig/Maier et al. 2012 | Pre-post intervention study | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | N | |||||
| Grünig/Lichtblau et al. 2012 | Pre-post intervention study | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | N | |||||
| Nagel et al. 2012 | Pre-post intervention study | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | N | |||||
| Becker-Grünig et al. 2013 | Pre-post intervention study | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | N | |||||
| Kabitz et al. 2014 | Pre-post intervention study | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | |||||
| Grünig et al. 2011 | Pre-post intervention study | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | |||||
| Inagaki et al. 2014 | Pre-post intervention study | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | |||||
| de Man et al. 2009 | Pre-post intervention study | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | N | |||||
| Martínez-Quintana et al. 2010 | Non-RCT | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Fox et al. 2011 | Non-RCT | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Shigefumi Fukui et al. 2016 | Non-RCT | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | |