Table 5. Results of evidence quality.
| References | Outcomes | Certainty assessment | Relative effect (95% CI) | P value | Certainty | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Risk of bias | Inconsistency | Indirectness | Imprecision | Other considerations | |||||
| Clavijo et al. (2017) | IIEF-EF | Not serious | Not serious | Serious | Not serious | None | MD 4.17 (−0.5 to 8.3) | <0.0001 | Moderate: ⊕⊕⊕○ |
| Zou et al. (2017) | IIEF-EF | Not serious | Serious | Not serious | Serious | None | RR 2.50 (0.74–8.54) | 0.02 | Low: ⊕⊕○○ |
| EHS | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | Serious | None | RR 8.31 (3.88–17.78) | 0.42 | High: ⊕⊕⊕⊕ | |
| Adverse effects | No statistical analysis was performed | ||||||||
| Sokolakis et al. (2019) | IIEF-EF | Not serious | Serious | Not serious | Not serious | None | MD 3.97 (2.09–5.84) | <0.0001 | Moderate: ⊕⊕⊕○ |
| EHS | Not serious | Serious | Not serious | Not serious | None | OR 4.35 (1.82–10.37) | 0.0009 | Moderate: ⊕⊕⊕○ | |
| PSV | serious | Not serious | Not serious | Serious | None | MD 4.12 (2.30–5.94) | ≤0.00001 | Low: ⊕⊕○○ | |
| Adverse effects | No statistical analysis was performed | ||||||||
| Man et al. (2018) | IIEF | Serious | Serious | Not serious | Not serious | None | MD 2.54 (0.83–4.25) | 0. 004 | Low: ⊕⊕○○ |
| EHS | Serious | Serious | Not serious | Not serious | None | RD 0.38 (0.07–0.69) | 0.02 | Low: ⊕⊕○○ | |
| Lu et al. (2017) | IIEF | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | Serious | None | MD 2.00 (0.99–3.00) | <0.0001 | Moderate: ⊕⊕⊕○ |
| EHS | Not serious | Serious | Not serious | Serious | None | RD 0.36 (0.28–0.43) | <0.00001 | Low: ⊕⊕○○ | |
| Dong et al. (2019) | IIEF-EF | Not serious | Serious | Not serious | Not serious | None | MD 3.62 (2.99–4.25) | <0.00001 | Moderate: ⊕⊕⊕○ |
| EHS | Serious | Serious | Not serious | Not serious | None | OR 16.02 (7.93–32.37) | <0.00001 | Low: ⊕⊕○○ | |
| Adverse effects | No statistical analysis was performed | ||||||||
| Mo et al. (2019) | IIEF | Serious | Not serious | Not serious | Serious | None | WMD 1.70 (0.44, 2.96) | 0.008 | Low: ⊕⊕○○ |
| EHS | Serious | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | None | RR 11.72 (5.13, 26.80) | <0.00001 | Moderate: ⊕⊕⊕○ | |
| Adverse effects | No statistical analysis was performed. No adverse reactions (pain, compression, hematoma, burn) were observed in RCT | ||||||||
| Liu et al. (2018) | IIEF | Not serious | Serious | Not serious | Not serious | None | MD 2.12 (0.62–3.62) | 0.006 | Moderate: ⊕⊕⊕○ |
| EHS | Serious | Serious | Not serious | Not serious | None | RD 0.46 (0.04–0.88) | 0.03 | Low: ⊕⊕○○ | |
High: ⊕⊕⊕⊕; Moderate: ⊕⊕⊕○; Low: ⊕⊕○○. LI-ESWT, low-intensity shockwave treatment; EHS, erection hardness score; ED, erectile dysfunction; PSV, peak systolic velocity; IIEF-EF, International Index of Erectile Function Erectile Function Domain score; RR, relative risk/risk ratio; MD, mean difference; RD, risk difference; OR, odds ratio; WMD, weighted mean difference; SMD, standardized mean difference.