Table 1.

Detailed description of inclusion and exclusion criteria

	Inclusion criteria	Exclusion criteria
Methods	Systematic review of interventions/exposure including RCTs and cohort studies; equivalent search for RCTs and cohort studies; performing quantitative meta-analysis for at least one BoE	Umbrella reviews, narrative reviews, systematic reviews of diagnostic test accuracy, individual patient data meta-analysis; no quantitative meta-analysis
BoE-pairs	BoE-pair with a BoE from RCTs and a BoE from cohort studies evaluating the same medical research question (e.g., association of exenatide with pancreatitis; effect of vitamin D on hypertension; comparing total with unicompartmental knee arthroplasty for range of movement of the knee)	Single small study (n<1000 participants) for one BoE (RCT or cohort studies); BoE-pair with one BoE using a continuous outcome and the other BoE using a binary outcome (e.g., risk of hypertension vs. mean difference of systolic blood pressure)
Population	All populations (e.g., primary prevention, secondary prevention, general population, adults, children)	-
Intervention/exposure	All types of medical interventions and exposures (e.g., drugs, invasive, procedures, nutrients, vaccines)	-
Comparator	All types of comparators (e.g., placebo, drugs, invasive, procedures, nutrients, vaccines)	-
Outcomes	Patient-relevant outcomes (e.g., mortality, cancer outcomes, cardiovascular outcomes, obstetrical outcomes) and of intermediate disease markers (e.g., LDL-cholesterol)	-
Study design	Randomized controlled trials (e.g., parallel, cluster, factorial, cross-over); cohort studies (e.g., prospective cohort, retrospective cohort, observational cohort analysis of RCTs)	Quasi-RCTs, non-randomized controlled trials, case-control studies, cross-sectional studies, ecological studies

BoE Bodies of evidence, LDL Low-density lipoprotein, RCT Randomized controlled trial