Table 3.

Risk of Bias of Each of the Studies

Article	Selection Bias	Recall Bias	Observer Bias	Perception Bias
Agu et al20	Low; 2,545 participants selected from the population of Enugu, Nigeria	Not applicable	High; several residents travelled to different locations to administer questionnaires	Low; survey contained multiple choice questions only
Irabor et al21	Low; participants recruited among surgeons from various departments in a hospital	Not applicable	Unclear	Low; survey contained multiple choice questions only
Nnabugwu et al22	Low; 369 patients recruited from various surgical departments in a hospital	Low; patients were given questionnaire on day before surgery	High; 3 interns administered the questionnaires	High; questionnaire contained mostly free-hand answers
Ochieng et al23	Low; participants recruited among surgeons from 3 different hospitals	Not applicable	Unclear	High; semistructured interviews used mainly qualitative approach
Ochieng et al24	Low; participants recruited among patients in various departments of a hospital	Low; participants interviewed within 2 weeks of surgery	Unclear	High; authors reviewed semistructured interviews
Sanwal et al25	Moderate/high; 100 patients selected from the general surgery department	Low; questionnaire administered within a week of surgery	Unclear	Unclear
Sceats et al26	High; participants selected among patients who underwent hernia repair during an STSM	Low; interviews conducted in the same session as the informed consent session	Moderate; 3 researchers interpreted the data	High; authors reviewed video interviews
Sutton et al27	High; participant cohort selected from patients undergoing surgery on a STSM	Low; patients were given the survey on the day of surgery	Unclear	Low; survey contained multiple choice questions only
Teshome et al28	High; participants selected among patients in an Obstetrics and Gynecology department	Low; interviews conducted immediately after discharge	High; questionnaire administered by several nurses	High; questionnaires were interview based
Walker et al29	High; patients were recruited if received hand surgery on STSM	Low; 2 surveys given, one preoperative and one immediately postoperative	Unclear	Moderate; most of the survey was multiple choice; however, free-hand answers were also part of the assessment
White et al30	High; patients were recruited if received plastic/maxfax/ortho interventions on Mercy Ships	High; patients were asked to recall experiences from several years before the interviews	High; interviews were conducted by several members of staff	High; semistructured interviews were conducted