Table 1

Quality assessment of the included studies


Liu [22]
Page [24]
Page [25]
Page [23]

Selection of prognostic homogenous study population (disease progression)
1
3
3
3
Concealment of random allocation
1
3
3
3
Prestratification of prognostically relevant variables
3
3
3
3
Random allocation (description of procedure)
2
1
1
3
Registration of loss to follow-up
1
3
4
4
Blinding of patients
4
4
4
4
Blinding of persons who implement interventions
4
4
4
4
Registration of co-interventions that bear on outcome for each group
3
3
1
3
Blinding of persons who assess treatment effects
3
1
1
3
Check to what extent blinding was successful
3
3
3
3

1 = Item is properly addressed, 2 = Item is partially addressed, 3 = Item is not properly addressed or not stated, 4 = Item is not applicable

Zimmermann-Schlatter et al. Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation 2008 5:8   doi:10.1186/1743-0003-5-8