Table 3

Quality appraisal of trials

Author, year	Randomised	Randomisation method	Type of randomisation	Allocation concealment	Blinding	Per cent Lost to follow-up	ITT
Middelkoop	RCT	Date of birth	NS	NS	None	NS	NS
Shenoy, 2009	RCT	NS	NS	NS	None	3	NS
Shenoy, 2010	RCT	NS	NS	NS	None	NS	Yes
Shantakumari	Randomised parallel study	NS	NS	NS	None	NS	NS
Vaishali	RCT	NS	Block	Sealed opaque envelopes	None	5.3	NS
Hawthorne	RCT	Random number tables	NS	Sealed envelopes	None	6.5	No
Adepu	RCT	NS	NS	NS	None	14.3	No
Baradaran	RCT	NS	Minimisation	NS	None	37.3	No
Ghosh	RCT	NS	NS	NS	None	Yes	NS
Malathy	RCT	NS	NS	NS	None	None	Yes
Hameed	RCT	Random number tables	NS	NS	None	Yes	Yes
Shetty	RCT	Random number tables	NS	NS	None	NS	No
O’Hare	Cluster RCT	None	NS	NS	None	10.0	No
Bellary	Cluster RCT	Simple	Simple	NS	NS	10.8	Yes
Vyas	Cluster RCT	NS	By GP practice4	NS	NS	44	No
DeSouza, 2003, 2004	Pretest post-test	Convenience sampling	NA	NA	None	NS	Yes
Balagopal, 2008	Pretest post-test	NA	NA	NA	None	Yes: refusals	Yes
Balagopal, 2012	Pretest post-test	NA	NA	NA	None	Yes: migration and refusals	Yes
Mirsa	Pretest post-test	NA	NA	NA	None	NS	Yes
Choudhury	Pretest post-test	NA	NA	NA	None	8.9	No
Pande	Pretest post-test	NA	NA	NA	None	NS	NS
Singh	Pretest post-test	NA	NA	NA	NS	NS	NS
Madanmohan, 2012	Pretest post-test	NA	NA	NA	NS	<1	Yes

ITT, intention-to-treat; NA, not applicable; NS, not specified; RCT, randomised controlled trial.