Table 3.
Approach grading of recommendations assessment, development, and evaluation on the certainty of evidence
| Certainty assessment | № of participants | Effect | Certainty | Importance | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No of studies | Study design | Risk of bias | Inconsistency | Indirectness | Imprecision | Other considerations | Coaches | Athletes | Relative (95% CI) |
Absolute (95% CI) |
||
| Overall RPE | ||||||||||||
| 34 | Observational studies | Seriousa | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | None | 109 | 602 | – |
SMD 0.19 SD lower (0.04 lower to 0.41 higher) |
⊕ ◯◯◯ Very low |
IMPORTANT |
| Overall sRPE | ||||||||||||
| 21 | Observational studies | Seriousa | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | None | 61 | 368 | – |
SMD 0.05 SD higher (0.24 lower to 0.33 higher) |
⊕ ◯◯◯ Very low |
IMPORTANT |
| Easy RPE | ||||||||||||
| 20 | Observational studies | Seriousa | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | None | 63 | 518 | – |
SMD 0.44 SD lower (0.87 lower to 0.01 lower) |
⊕ ◯◯◯ Very low |
IMPORTANT |
| Moderate RPE | ||||||||||||
| 21 | Observational studies | Seriousa | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | Publication bias strongly suspectedb | 64 | 536 | – |
SMD 0.05 SD higher (0.22 lower to 0.31 higher) |
⊕ ◯◯◯ Very low |
IMPORTANT |
| Hard RPE | ||||||||||||
| 21 | Observational studies | Seriousa | Seriousc | Not serious | Not serious | None | 64 | 536 | – |
SMD 0.41 SD higher (0.19 lower to 1 higher) |
⊕ ◯◯◯ Very low |
IMPORTANT |
| Easy sRPE | ||||||||||||
| 8 | Observational studies | Seriousa | Not serious | Not serious | Seriousd | None | 18 | 114 | – |
SMD 0.54 SD lower (1.05 lower to 0.02 lower) |
⊕ ◯◯◯ Very low |
IMPORTANT |
| Moderate sRPE | ||||||||||||
| 8 | Observational studies | Seriousa | Not serious | Not serious | Seriousd | None | 18 | 114 | – |
SMD 0.15 SD lower (0.66 lower to 0.36 higher) |
⊕ ◯◯◯ Very low |
IMPORTANT |
| Hard sRPE | ||||||||||||
| 8 | Observational studies | Seriousa | Not serious | Not serious | Seriousd | None | 18 | 114 | – |
SMD 0.2 SD higher (0.3 lower to 0.71 higher) |
⊕ ◯◯◯ Very low |
IMPORTANT |
CI confidence interval, SMD standardized mean difference
Explanations
a. More than 25% of participants were from studies with a moderate or high risk of bias
b. Egger's linear regression indicated potential publication bias for RPE in the moderate category
c. Heterogeneity I2 > 50%
d. The total number of participants in this comparison is less than 140