Table 4.

Methodological quality appraisal of the included studies.

	Criteria	S1: [33]	S2: [29]	S3: [25]	S4: [27]	S5: [32]	S6: [22]	S7: [31]	S8: [26]	S9: [23]	S10: [24]
1	Random sequence generation	⨯	✓	✓	⨯	⨯	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
2	Allocation concealment	?	?	✓	?	?	✓	✓	?	⨯	⨯
3	Baseline assessment	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
4	Blinding – participants	?	?	⨯	?	?	⨯	✓	⨯	?	?
5	Blinding – care provider	?	?	⨯	?	?	⨯	✓	⨯	?	?
6	Blinding – outcome	?	?	✓	?	?	✓	✓	⨯	?	?
7	Cointerventions	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	⨯	✓	✓
8	Compliance	✓	✓	✓	?	✓	?	✓	⨯	✓	✓
9	Dropouts	⨯	✓	✓	?	✓	?	✓	✓	✓	⨯
10	Timing	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
11	Selective outcome reporting	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
12	Incomplete outcome data	⨯	⨯	✓	?	✓	?	✓	⨯	⨯	⨯
13	Other bias
	Sample size calculation	?	?	✓	⨯	?	✓	✓	?	⨯	⨯
	Inclusion criteria	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
	Exclusion criteria	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
	Evaluation of treatment effects	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
	Adverse events reporting	⨯	⨯	✓	?	?	?	✓	?	✓	?
	Data analysis methods	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓

Note. ⨯: high risk; ✓: low risk; and ?: unclear.