Table 3.
Quality of the randomised controlled, non‐randomised and cohort studies where comparisons were made between the incidence of pressure ulcers where (a) the skin was protected with a prophylactic dressing and where no dressing was applied and (b) where different dressings were applied to protect the skin
| Quality criterion | Santamaria et al. 9 | Callaghan and Trapp 10 | Weng 2008 11 | Huang et al. 2009 12 | Forni et al. 2011 13 | Brindle and Wegelin 2012 14 | Cubit et al. 15 | Nakagami et al. 2007 16 | Imanishi et al. 2006 17 | Torra i Bou et al. 2009 18 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The assignment of subjects to treatment groups is randomised | Y | Unclear* | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | Unclear* |
| Subjects and investigators are kept ‘blind’ about treatment allocation | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N |
| The treatment and control groups are similar at the start of the trial | Y | Not reported | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Not applicable | Not reported | Y |
| The study indicates how many of the people asked to take part did so in each of the groups being studied | Y | N | N | N | N | N | Y | N | N | N |
| All relevant outcomes are measured in a standard, valid and reliable manner | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Not reported | Y |
| Was the percentage of the individuals or clusters recruited into each treatment arm of the study who dropped out before the study was reported? | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | Y |
| Where the study is carried out at more than one site, results are comparable for all sites | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Not reported |
*
Subjects described as being randomly allocated to interventions but no details of the randomisation provided.