Table 6.
The GRADE assessment for the overall certainty of evidence across studies
| Quality assessment | Number of patients | Effect | Quality | Importance | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of studies | Design | Risk of bias | Inconsistency | Indirectness | Imprecision | Other considerations | Muscle strength | Control | Relative (95% CI) | Absolute | ||
| KES subgroup (follow-up 0–24 weeks; Better indicated by lower values) | ||||||||||||
| 17 | randomised trials | seriousa |
serious (I2 = 75) |
no serious indirectness | no serious imprecision | none | 415 | 394 | – | SMD 0.86 higher (0.55 to 1.16 higher) |
⊕ ⊕ OO LOW |
CRITICAL |
| TUG subgroup (follow-up 0–24 weeks; Better indicated by lower values) | ||||||||||||
| 9 | randomised trials | seriousb |
serious (I2 = 60) |
no serious indirectness | no serious imprecision | none | 279 | 264 | – | SMD 0.66 lower (0.94 to 0.38 lower) |
⊕ ⊕ OO LOW |
CRITICAL |
| GS subgroup (follow-up 0–24 weeks; Better indicated by lower values) | ||||||||||||
| 17 | randomised trials | seriousc |
serious (I2 = 87) |
no serious indirectness | no serious imprecision | none | 500 | 465 | – | SMD 0.82 higher (0.43 to 1.21 higher) |
⊕ ⊕ OO LOW |
CRITICAL |
| CS subgroup (follow-up 0–24 weeks; Better indicated by lower values) | ||||||||||||
| 10 | randomised trials | seriousd |
serious (I2 = 87) |
no serious indirectness | no serious imprecision | none | 313 | 298 | – | SMD 0.11 higher (0.36 lower to 0.57 higher) |
⊕ ⊕ OO LOW |
– |
KES knee extension strength, TUG timed up and go, GS gait speed, CS chair stand
a Of the 17 studies, 6 not performed concealed allocation and 9 were not blinded for assessors
b Of the 9 studies, 6 were not blinded for assessors. c Of the 17 studies, 10 were not blinded for assessors. d Of the 10 studies, 6 were not blinded for assessors