General characteristics of the included documents
| Type | Industry (N=11) | HTA (N=14) | Academic (N=20) | Regulatory (N=15) | Total (N=60) |
| Total documents (n) | 2 | 19 | 12 | 19 | 52 |
| Documents per organisation ratio | 0.18 | 1.36 | 0.60 | 1.27 | 0.87 |
| Number of pages (median, first/third quartile) | 9 (9/9) | 113 (75/219) | 71 (39/162) | 39 (20/81) | 74 (36/162) |
| ‘Subgroup’ mentioned (median, first/third quartile) | 1 (1/1) | 24 (11/41) | 5 (2/17) | 12 (8/21) | 13 (5/27) |
| ‘Effect modification’ mentioned at least once (n, %) | 0 (0) | 8 (42) | 2 (17) | 3 (16) | 13 (25) |
| ‘Treatment covariate interaction’ mentioned at least once (n, %) | 0 (0) | 2 (11) | 0 (0) | 2 (11) | 4 (8) |
| Specific subgroup paragraph (n, %) | 0 (0) | 8 (42) | 2 (17) | 8 (42) | 18 (35) |
| Mention heterogeneity (n, %) | 0 (0) | 11 (58) | 5 (42) | 8 (42) | 24 (46) |
| Include a subgroup definition (n, %) | 0 (0) | 9 (47) | 3 (25) | 8 (42) | 20 (38) |
| Research purpose:* (n, %) | |||||
| Cost-effectiveness study (n, %) | 0 (0) | 10 (53) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 10 (19) |
| Clinical trial (n, %) | 2 (100) | 9 (47) | 7 (58) | 19 (100) | 37 (71) |
| Non-randomised study (n, %) | 0 (0) | 3 (16) | 2 (17) | 0 (0) | 5 (10) |
| Systematic review (n, %) | 0 (0) | 9 (47) | 5 (42) | 7 (37) | 21 (40) |
Note: Presented as frequency.
*Some documents had multiple research purposes.
HTA, health technology assessment; N, number of organisations; n, number of documents.