Table 3.

General characteristics of included systematic reviews and the meta-analyses (n=100). Values are numbers (percentages) unless stated otherwise

Characteristics	Estimate
Median (interquartile range) No of randomised controlled trials in each meta-analysis	6 (3-8)
Type of intervention:
Drug	61 (61.0)
Surgery or invasive procedure	24 (24.0)
Other	15 (15.0)
Type of control:
Active: drug	21 (21.0)
Active: surgery or invasive procedure	18 (18.0)
Non-active: no intervention, standard of care, placebo, or sham	55 (55.0)
Other	6 (6.0)
Outcome category:
Mortality	21 (21.0)
Morbidity	56 (56.0)
Patient reported outcomes	23 (23.0)
Favourability of outcome*:
Favourable	27 (27.0)
Unfavourable	73 (73.0)
Mean (SD) duration of outcome follow-up (months)	12.5 (23.1)
Effect measures reported:
Risk ratio	61 (61.0)
Odds ratio	39 (39.0)
Analysis model:
Random effects model	43 (43.0)
Fixed effect model	57 (57.0)
Statistical methods:
Mantel-Haenszel	77 (77.0)
Inverse variance	4 (4.0)
Peto	7 (7.0)
Other	7 (7.0)
Not reported	5 (5.0)
Reported handling method:
Complete case analysis	2 (2.0)
Assuming no participants with missing data had the event	3 (3.0)
Assuming all participants with missing data had the event	2 (2.0)
Not reported	93 (93.0)

^*Whether outcome was negative (eg, mortality) or positive (eg, survival).