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Table 3 Quality of evidence for primary outcomes in patients with asthma

From: Effects of exercise-based pulmonary rehabilitation on adults with asthma: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Certainty assessment

No. of patients

Effect

Certainty

Importance

No. of included studies

Study design

Risk of bias

Inconsiste-ncy

Indirectness

Imprecision

Other considerat-ions

Experimental group

Control group

Relative (95% CI)

Absolute (95% CI)

Asthma quality of life—AQLQ (overall QOL)

4

RCT

Not serious

Not serious

Not serious

Seriousa

None

101

97

MD 0.39 higher

(0.02 higher to 0.76 higher)

Moderate

Critical

Asthma quality of life—AQLQ (activity domain)

4

RCT

Not serious

Not serious

Not serious

Seriousa

None

105

91

MD 0.58 higher

(0.21 higher to 0.94 higher)

Moderate

Critical

Asthma quality of life—AQLQ (symptom domain)

4

RCT

Not serious

Not serious

Not serious

Seriousa

None

105

91

MD 0.52 higher

(0.19 higher to 0.85 higher)

Moderate

Critical

Asthma quality of life—AQLQ (emotion domain)

4

RCT

Not serious

Not serious

Not serious

Seriousa

None

105

91

MD 0.53 higher

(0.03 lower to 1.09 higher)

Moderate

Critical

Asthma quality of life—AQLQ (environment domain)

4

RCT

Not serious

Not serious

Not serious

Seriousa

None

105

91

MD 0.56 higher

(0 to 1.11 higher)

Moderate

Critical

  1. CI confidence interval, RCT randomized controlled trial, AQLQ asthma quality of life questionnaire, MD mean difference
  2. aSmall sample size and wide confidence interval