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Table 8 Ratings of level of evidence from Evidence Based Medicine

From: The effects of error-augmentation versus error-reduction paradigms in robotic therapy to enhance upper extremity performance and recovery post-stroke: a systematic review

Level of evidence

Evidence level

Study type

1a (Strong)

Well-designed meta- analysis, or 2 or more “high” quality RCTs (PEDro Scale scores ≥ 6) that show similar findings

1b (Moderate)

One RCT of “high” quality (PEDro Scale score ≥ 6)

2a (Limited)

At least one “fair” quality RCT (PEDro Scale score = 4–5)

2b (Limited)

At least one well-designed non-experimental study: Non-randomised controlled trial; quasi-experimental studies; cohort studies with multiple baselines; single subjects series with mutiple baselines

3 (Consensus)

Agreement by an expert panel, a group of professionals in the field or a number of pre-post design studies with similar results

4 (Conflicting)

Conflicting evidence of two or more equally designed studies

5 (No Evidence)

No well-designed studies: “Poor” quality RCTs with PEDro scores ≤ 3; only case studies/case descriptions, or cohort studies/single series with no multiple baselines)

  1. Table taken from Sackett (2000) [51]