Table 6 The GRADE assessment for the overall certainty of evidence across studies
Quality assessment | Number of patients | Effect | Quality | Importance | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Number of studies | Design | Risk of bias | Inconsistency | Indirectness | Imprecision | Other considerations | Muscle strength | Control | Relative (95% CI) | Absolute | ||
KES subgroup (follow-up 0–24 weeks; Better indicated by lower values) | ||||||||||||
 17 | randomised trials | seriousa | serious (I2 = 75) | no serious indirectness | no serious imprecision | none | 415 | 394 | – | SMD 0.86 higher (0.55 to 1.16 higher) | ⊕ ⊕ OO LOW | CRITICAL |
TUG subgroup (follow-up 0–24 weeks; Better indicated by lower values) | ||||||||||||
 9 | randomised trials | seriousb | serious (I2 = 60) | no serious indirectness | no serious imprecision | none | 279 | 264 | – | SMD 0.66 lower (0.94 to 0.38 lower) | ⊕ ⊕ OO LOW | CRITICAL |
GS subgroup (follow-up 0–24 weeks; Better indicated by lower values) | ||||||||||||
 17 | randomised trials | seriousc | serious (I2 = 87) | no serious indirectness | no serious imprecision | none | 500 | 465 | – | SMD 0.82 higher (0.43 to 1.21 higher) | ⊕ ⊕ OO LOW | CRITICAL |
CS subgroup (follow-up 0–24 weeks; Better indicated by lower values) | ||||||||||||
 10 | randomised trials | seriousd | serious (I2 = 87) | no serious indirectness | no serious imprecision | none | 313 | 298 | – | SMD 0.11 higher (0.36 lower to 0.57 higher) | ⊕ ⊕ OO LOW | – |