Table 4 Risk of bias/ quality assessment tools for primary studies used by included systematic reviews

Newcastle–Ottawa Scale (NOS) [86]

9 [71, 77,78,79,80,81,82,83,84]

2 [71, 81]

Evaluating non-randomized studies in systematic reviews

Yes (general)^a

No

Yes

Mustafic et al. (modified NOS) [87]

2 [79, 81]

0

Time-series and case-crossover studies of air pollution exposure

Yes

Possible (“long-term trends”)

Yes

Herzog et al. (modified NOS) [88]

1 [84]

0

Cross-sectional studies (developed for vaccine-related knowledge, attitude, and behavior)

Yes (general)^a

No

Yes

Modesti et al. (modified NOS) [89]

1 [81]

0

Cross-sectional studies (developed for studies of blood pressure)

Yes (general)^a

No

Yes

Office of Health Assessment and Translation (OHAT) [15, 66, 90]

4 [73, 75, 79, 81]

3 [73, 75, 81]

Systematic reviews and evidence integrations of environmental health research

Yes

Yes

Yes

Navigation Guide [5, 64]

2 [76, 81]

0

Systematic reviews of human studies in environmental health

Yes

No^§

Yes

ACROBAT-NRSI [91] (later ROBINS-I) (97)

1 [72]

1 [72]

Non-randomized studies of interventions

Yes (“measurement of intervention”)

Yes (“co-interventions”)

Yes

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) [62]

1 [78]

0

Systematic reviews of studies of healthcare interventions

Yes (general)^a

Yes (“co-interventions”)

Yes

Cochrane tool for RCTs (ROB 1) [92]

1 [78]

0

Systematic reviews of individual RCTs

No

No

Yes (randomization)

Hoy et al. [93]

1 [74]

0

Prevalence studies of low back and neck pain

No

No

No

ROBINS-E (preliminary version) [94]

1 [74]

0

Non-randomized studies of exposures

Yes

Yes

Yes

Centre for Evidence Based-Medicine (CEBM) [95, 96]

1 [70]

Unclear (insufficiently reported)

Clinical decision-making

Yes (general)^a

No

Yes

Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) [97]

1 [69]

1 [69]

Guideline development of clinical care (all study designs)

Yes (general)^a

No

Yes

Own criteria [5, 68]

2 [5, 68]

N/A

N/A

Yes

No

Yes