Table 2.

Methodological quality of cross-sectional studies (Loney Scale)

References	Are the study methods valid?						What is the interpretation of the results?	How likely are the results?	Final score
Criteria	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Ruíz-Frutos et al.	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	8
Najmul-Islam et al.	1	1	1	1	1	1	0	1	7
Talwar et al.	0	1	1	1	1	1	0	1	6
Sallam et al.	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	8
Duplaga	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	8
Secosan et al.	1	1	0	1	1	1	0	1	6

Questions in header relate to different criteria of quality as measured by the Loney Scale:

1 – Is the study design and sampling appropriate to answer the research question? 2 – Is the sample base adequate? 3 – Is the sample size adequate? 4 – Are adequate and standardized objective criteria used to measure motor development? 5 – Was EDM applied in an unbiased way? 6 – Is the response rate adequate? 7 – Were the EDM results presented in a detailed way? 8 – Are participants and context described in detail and can they be generalized to other situations?

Numbers alongside each reference relate to quality of response questions above: 1 = adequate, 2 = inadequate