Criteria list for assessment of methodological quality of papers
| Questions | Criteria measured | % Papers meeting criteria (n=95) |
| Q1: Was the research question or objective in this paper clearly stated? | Informativeness | 95 |
| Q2: Was the study population clearly specified and defined? | Informativeness | 93 |
| Q3: Was the participation rate of eligible persons at least 50%? | Methodology | 32 |
| Q4: Were all the subjects selected or recruited from the same or similar populations (including the same time period)? Were inclusion and exclusion criteria for being in the study prespecified and applied uniformly to all participants? | Methodology | 69 |
| Q5: Was a sample size justification, power description or variance and effect estimates provided? | Methodology | 17 |
| Q6: Were the markers of health/health behaviours/outcomes clearly defined, valid, reliable and implemented consistently across all study participants? | Methodology | 78 |
| Quality of papers (no of Questions meeting criteria) | ||
| Good (≥5 items) | 25 | |
| Fair (4 items) | 42 | |
| Poor (≤3 items) | 33 | |