Table 6 Literature searches, characteristics of trials with extractable data for meta-analysis
| Â | Linde (1997) [6] | Linde (1998) [7] | Cucherat (2000) [8] | Shang (2005) [9] | Mathie (2014) [10] | Mathie (2017) [11] | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
N full-text records assessed for eligibility | No data | No data | 150 | 156 | 348 | 359 | ||||||
N trials | ||||||||||||
 Assessed for eligibility | 186 | No data | 118 | No data | No data | No data | ||||||
 Eligible for systematic review | 119 | 31 | 17 | 110 | 32 | 75 | ||||||
 Extractable data for meta-analysis | N = 89 | N = 18 | N = 17 | N = 110 | N = 22 | N = 54 | ||||||
Year range for trial publication | 1943–1995 | 1980–1997 | 1980–1998 | 1960–2003 | 1994–2011 | 1976–2014 | ||||||
Sample size of trials | ||||||||||||
 Total | 9283 | 1019 | 2480 | 12,879 | 1335 | 5739 | ||||||
 Mean | 149 | 38 | 133 | 117 | 33 | 101 | ||||||
 Median | 60 | 45 | 97 | 65 | 57 | 64 | ||||||
 Interquartile range | 39–120 | 30–74 | 53–237 | 37–104 | 40–71 | 39–131 | ||||||
 Total range | 5–1270 | 10–175 | 28–478 | 10–1573 | 23–175 | 18–478 | ||||||
N countries | 13 | 12 | No data | No data | 11 | 15 | ||||||
Publication language | N | % | N | % | N | % | N | % | N | % | N | % |
 English | 35 | 39.3% | 16 | 88.9% | 9 | 52.9% | 57 | 51.8% | 21 | 95.5% | 37 | 68.5% |
 French | 25 | 28.1% | 0 | 0.0% | 4 | 23.5% | 22 | 20.0% | 0 | 0.0% | 2 | 3.7% |
 German | 26 | 29.2% | 1 | 5.6% | 4 | 23.5% | 28 | 25.5% | 1 | 4.5% | 13 | 24.1% |
 Other | 3 | 3.4% | 1 | 5.6% | 0 | 0.0% | 3 | 2.7% | 0 | 0.0% | 2 | 3.7% |
 Total | 89 | 100.0% | 18 | 100.0% | 17 | 100.0% | 110 | 100.0% | 22 | 100.0% | 54 | 100.0% |