Table 3.
Qualitative assessment of appraised systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
| Study | Registered on PROSPERO? | The reporting guideline used?1 | NOS used? | Subgroup analysis provided? | Gray literature searched? | Funding acknowledged? | Meta-analysis limitations stated? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cai et al., 2020 (19) | No | Yes (PRISMA) | Yes | Yes | Yes but excluded | Yes | Yes |
| Yin et al., 2019 (20) | No | No | Yes | No | Yes but excluded | No funding received | Yes |
| Gong et al., 2019 (8) | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes but excluded | No funding received | Yes |
| Gao et al., 2019 (21) | No | Yes (PRISMA) | Yes | Yes | Not specified | Yes | Yes |
| Lu et al., 2019 (11) | No | No | Yes | Yes | Not stated | Not stated | Yes |
| Tian et al., 2018 (13) | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes but excluded | No funding received | Yes |
| Xu et al., 2018 (23) | No | Yes (PRISMA) | Yes | Yes | Not stated | Yes | Yes |
| Zhao et al., 2018 (24) | No | Yes (PRISMA) | Yes | No | Not specified | Not stated | Yes |
| Chen et al., 2018 (25) | No | No | Yes | Yes (by one covariate only) | Yes but excluded | Yes | Yes |
| Zhu et al., 2018 (14) | No | Yes (PRISMA) | Yes | Yes (by one covariate only) | Yes but excluded | No funding received | Yes |
| Chen et al., 2017 (26) | No | No | Yes | Yes | Not stated | Not stated | Yes |
| Ma et al., 2017 (27) | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes but excluded | Yes | Yes |
| Huang et al., 2017 (28) | No | Yes (MOOSE) | Yes | Yes | Yes but excluded | Yes | Yes |
| Yang et al., 2017 (29) | No | Yes (MOOSE) | Yes | Yes | Not stated | Yes | Yes |
| Ethier et al., 2017 (10) | No | Yes (PRISMA) | No | Yes | Yes but excluded | No funding received | Yes |
| Zhou et al., 2017 (30) | Yes (CRD42016052250)# | Yes (PRISMA) | Yes | Yes | Yes but excluded | Yes | Yes |
NOS, Newcastle–Ottawa Scale; PRISMA, Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses; MOOSE, Meta-analyses Of Observational Studies in Epidemiology.
1MOOSE or PRISMA.
#Not updated on PROSPERO database.