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