2.5 Quality assessment of the included trials
Two independent authors assessed the quality of all the included studies
using the Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) scale which includes
11 items: 1) eligibility criteria and source; 2) random assignment; 3)
concealment of allocation; 4) baseline comparability; 5) blinding of
participants; 6) blinding of therapists; 7) blinding of assessors; 8)
obtainment of the follow-up for over 85% of the participants; 9)
intention to treat analysis; 10) between-group statistical comparison;
and 11) point estimates and variability measures. The quality of the
included studies was assessed as to how many out of these items were
clearly satisfied within the study. Each of these 11 criteria was
answered with āYā (criteria satisfied) or āNā (criteria not satisfied).
Trials with a score of 6 or above were considered high quality trials,
those scoring 4 or 5 were considered moderate quality trials and any
trial with a score of 3 or less was considered low quality (21).