Table 4.

Absolute incremental improvements in desired care by study feature

Study feature	Category (No of trials)	Absolute incremental improvement (%; 95% CI)*	P value
Clinical specialty	Paediatrics (9) v other (113)	14.7 (8.4 to 21.0)	<0.001
Patient sample size†	Small (<median) v large (≥median)	3.7 (0.2 to 7.3)	0.04
Country	US (82) v other (40)	3.7 (0 to 7.4)	0.05
Baseline adherence‡	<Median v ≥median	3.3 (−0.2 to 6.9)	0.06
Co-interventions beyond clinician education	Yes (35) v no (87)	1.3 (−2.6 to 5.1)	0.53
Provider sample size§	Small (<median) v large (≥median)	0.2 (−5.7 to 6.2)	0.94
Study design	Quasi-RCT (16) v RCT (106)	0.1 (−5.4 to 5.6)	0.96
Educational co-interventions	Yes (57) v no (65)	−0.8 (−4.4 to 2.8)	0.66
Publication year	2009 onwards (87) v before 2009 (35)	−0.8 (−4.8 to 3.2)	0.70
Care setting	Outpatient (90) v other (32)	−3.7 (−7.8 to 0.5)	0.08

RCT=randomised controlled trial.

^*The third column shows the estimated pooled difference (and 95% confidence interval) in the percentage of desired care between the two study types listed in the first column. Results from 122 trials (108 studies) reporting dichotomous outcomes were each estimated using a univariate meta-regression model.

^†Defined as small or large relative to the median patient sample size. Across all trials, the median was 2237 (interquartile range 450 to 8574).

^‡The proportion of patients in control groups who received the desired process of care. Across all trials, the median was 39.4% (interquartile range 17.3% to 62.3%).

^§Defined as small and large relative to the median provider sample size. Across all trials, the median was 81 (interquartile range 36 to 171).