Table 4 Major key methodological findings

Most frequent risk of biases

Random sequence generation, allocation concealment, baseline characteristics, baseline outcome measurements similar, and contamination between intervention and comparator

Study designs

Not restricted to RCTs or cluster RCTs

Economic quality criteria

Most criteria are met but there are some issues: not detailing target population; not describing “usual care” comparators; not including patient costs, indirect costs or intervention fees; analytical methods poorly described; incremental costs and outcomes sometimes not reported; not accounting for uncertainty

Heterogeneity

In populations, interventions and some outcomes

Equity

Not assessed

Process dimensions

Process dimensions that impact dissemination and external validity poorly described.