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. 2021 Feb 4;136(6):671–684. doi: 10.1177/0033354920976557

Table 1.

Rubric used to assess rigor and quality of articles that were included in a scoping review, evaluated workplace wellness programs, included ROI measures, and were published before December 20, 2019

Domain Checklist items Article information or score
Article
 1.1 Who is the author? Open-ended
 1.2 What is the title of the article? Open-ended
 1.3 What year was the study conducted/published? Open-ended
 1.4 If published, in which journal was it published? Open-ended
 1.5 What is evaluated: wellness, disease management, or both? Open-ended
 1.6 What is the country of study? Open-ended
 1.7 What is the industry/company? Open-ended
 1.8 The size of the worksite in which wellness program took place Small/large
 1.8.1 Number of participants and nonparticipants Open-ended
 1.9 What academic department or research center conducted the study? Open-ended
 1.10 What is the funding agency? Open-ended
 1.11 Do authors have any conflicts of interest? Yes/no
Reporting
 2.1 Objectives of the study 0 or 1
 2.2 Intervention(s) 0 or 1
 2.3 Study sample (scored as average of sub-questions 2.3.1, 2.3.2, 2.3.3, with each sub-question carrying equal weight in contributing to 2.3 score) 0 to 1
 2.3.1 Study population 0 or 1
 2.3.2 Inclusion/exclusion criteria 0 or 1
 2.3.3 Analysis sample 0 or 1
 2.4 Type of the economic analysis 0 or 1
 2.5 Main outcome(s) 0 or 1
 2.6 Intervention costs 0 or 1
 2.7 Main finding(s) 0 or 1
 2.8 Statistical inference information about the main outcomes (interquartile change, standard errors, standard deviations, confidence interval, P values) 0 or 1
Internal validity
 3.1 Were the main outcome measures clearly described? 0 or 1
 3.2 Were study subjects randomized to intervention groups? (0: observational case or cohort without control group; 0.25: observational case with control group; 0.50: observational cohort with control group; 0.75: quasi-experimental; 1.00: randomized) 0, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, or 1.0
 3.3 Was the method used to assess the main outcomes appropriate? (Scored as average of sub-questions 3.3.1, 3.3.2, with each sub-question carrying equal weight in contributing to 3.3 score) 0 to 1
 3.3.1 When not randomized, was any method used to deal with selection bias? 0 or 1
 3.3.2 Appropriate method for outcome estimates 0 or 1
 3.4 Were the costs measured and valued appropriately? (Scored as average of sub-questions 3.4.1, 3.4.2, 3.4.3, with each sub-question carrying equal weight in contributing to 3.4 score) 0 to 1
 3.4.1 Were the intervention cost measures that were used clearly described? 0 or 1
 3.4.2 Were monetized outcomes and intervention costs discounted when the timeframe was >1 year? If not discounted, was the reason explained? 0 or 1
 3.4.3 Were costs adjusted to real values/inflation? 0 or 1
 3.5 Were control and treated groups (or cohorts) recruited from the same population? 0 or 1
 3.6 Were control and treated groups (or cohorts) recruited from the same period? 0 or 1
 3.7 Did the analyses adjust for different follow-up lengths in cohort or case-control studies? Was the period between intervention and outcome the same for cases and controls? 0 or 1
 3.8 Were attrition/losses from follow-ups taken into account? 0 or 1
External validity
 4.1 Did participants in the study represent the entire population from which they were recruited? 0 or 1
Power
 5.1 Did study have sufficient power to detect a clinically important effect? (ie, P values) 0 or 1
Total quality index score Sum the values of reporting (2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6, 2.7, 2.8), internal validity (3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, 3.8), external validity (4.1), and power (5.1) items. 0-18