Table 1 Strength of evidence grading used in these guidelines. Questions on effectiveness (treatment results) and diagnosis (assessment) have been considered

Strength of evidence

Question

Meaning

I

Effectiveness

Multiple Randomized Controlled Trials or Systematic Reviews of such studies

Diagnosis

Multiple Randomized Controlled Trials, or Cross-sectional Studies with verification by reference (gold) standard, or Systematic Reviews of such studies

II

Effectiveness

One Randomized Controlled Trial

Diagnosis

One Randomized Controlled Trial, or one Cross-sectional Study with verification by reference (gold) standard

III

Effectiveness

Multiple Controlled nonrandomized Studies or Systematic Reviews of such studies

Diagnosis

Multiple Cross-sectional Studies with incomplete & unbalanced verification with reference (gold) standard

IV

Effectiveness

Other studies

Diagnosis

V

Effectiveness

SOSORT consensus with more than 90% of agreement

Diagnosis

VI

Effectiveness

SOSORT consensus with 70 to 89% of agreement

Diagnosis