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 ā€˜Y’ (criteria satisfied) or ā€˜N’ (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).