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) |