Table 3.
Quality of evidence for primary outcomes in patients with asthma
| Certainty assessment | No. of patients | Effect | Certainty | Importance | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. of included studies | Study design | Risk of bias | Inconsiste-ncy | Indirectness | Imprecision | Other considerat-ions | Experimental group | Control group | Relative (95% CI) | Absolute (95% CI) | ||
| Asthma quality of life—AQLQ (overall QOL) | ||||||||||||
| 4 | RCT | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | Seriousa | None | 101 | 97 | – |
MD 0.39 higher (0.02 higher to 0.76 higher) |
⨁⨁⨁◯ Moderate |
Critical |
| Asthma quality of life—AQLQ (activity domain) | ||||||||||||
| 4 | RCT | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | Seriousa | None | 105 | 91 | – |
MD 0.58 higher (0.21 higher to 0.94 higher) |
⨁⨁⨁◯ Moderate |
Critical |
| Asthma quality of life—AQLQ (symptom domain) | ||||||||||||
| 4 | RCT | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | Seriousa | None | 105 | 91 | – |
MD 0.52 higher (0.19 higher to 0.85 higher) |
⨁⨁⨁◯ Moderate |
Critical |
| Asthma quality of life—AQLQ (emotion domain) | ||||||||||||
| 4 | RCT | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | Seriousa | None | 105 | 91 | – |
MD 0.53 higher (0.03 lower to 1.09 higher) |
⨁⨁⨁◯ Moderate |
Critical |
| Asthma quality of life—AQLQ (environment domain) | ||||||||||||
| 4 | RCT | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | Seriousa | None | 105 | 91 | – |
MD 0.56 higher (0 to 1.11 higher) |
⨁⨁⨁◯ Moderate |
Critical |
CI confidence interval, RCT randomized controlled trial, AQLQ asthma quality of life questionnaire, MD mean difference
aSmall sample size and wide confidence interval