Table 1 Characteristics of the included systematic review reports
Characteristic | Studies |
|---|---|
N = 132 | |
n (%) | |
Journal of publication | |
Specialty | 119 (90) |
General | 33 (10) |
Country | |
Europe | 44 (33) |
North America | 32 (24) |
Middle/South America | 1 (1) |
Australia | 7 (5) |
Asia | 48 (37) |
Africa | 0 (0) |
Type of intervention | |
Pharmacological | 51 (39) |
Non-pharmacological | 81 (61) |
Primary studies included (median [IQR]) | 14 [9.0–26.0] |
Randomised controlled trials included (median [IQR]) | 5.0 [2.0–8.0] |
OSs included (median [IQR]) | 9. 0 [5.0–18.0] |
Specific OS designs included | |
Prospective cohort studies | 17 (13) |
Retrospective cohort studies | 13 (10) |
Case control studies | 9 (7) |
Were the different types of OSs analysed differently? | |
Yes | 8 (6) |
No | 120 (91) |
Unclear | 4 (3) |
Was an evaluation of the risk of bias for primary studies provided? | |
yes, with different tools for OSs and RCTs | 79 (65) |
yes, with same tool for OSs and RCTs | 33 (27) |
yes, for OSs only | 8 (6) |
yes, for RCTs only | 1 (1) |
No | 11 (8) |