Contributors and sources
The authors are notable as an interdisciplinary team of EBM
practitioners and instructors who are respected as clinicians,
mathematicians, epidemiologists, statisticians, methodologists, and
researchers across academic institutions, hospitals and clinics in the
UK, Can, USA, Brazil and Switzerland. Their research experience ranges
from recently acquired doctorates to over 40 years in research and
clinical practice. All authors contributed to the methods, commented on
the analysis and contributed to writing and revising the manuscript. Our
sources and selection criteria are contained within the document, the
data is publicly available from the Cochrane Database and our
statistical methods are outlined in the methods, figures and tables.
PRISMA was used to report our findings. BD serves as the guarantor of
the article.
A conceptual idea: BD
Design: BD & DN
Protocol development : BD, MMA,DN, LH,
DK, AP, RR, PN, APPdS, DM, RLP,
LEF
Data acquisition: MMA, DK, AP, RR, PN, APPdS, DM, RLP, LEF, RP
Statistical analysis: IH, BD, LH
Drafting manuscript: BD
Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual
content : BD,LH, DN, AP, DK, RR, PN, APPdS, DM, RLP, LEF, RP
Administrative, technical, or material support : BD, MMA
Supervision: BD
Funding: This project was supported in part by grant number
R01HS024917
from the
Agency
for Healthcare Research and Quality (Dr. Djulbegovic). The content is
solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily
represent the official views of the Agency for Healthcare Research and
Quality. The funders had no role in the design and conduct of the study;
collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data;
preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to
submit the manuscript for publication.
Conflict of interest: We declare no conflict of interest in
relation to this work