Distribution of study designs across included publications
| Study designs | n (%) |
|---|---|
| Unfiltered evidence | 2631 (94.0) |
| Observational | 1523 (54.4) |
| Cross-sectional | 698 (45.8) |
| Cohort | 656 (43.1) |
| Case-control | 100 (6.6) |
| Observational (non-descript) | 48 (3.2) |
| Ecological | 12 (0.8) |
| Before and after | 9 (0.6) |
| Total | 1523 (100) |
| Interventional | 294 (10.5) |
| Randomised controlled trial | 205 (69.7) |
| Pilot | 44 (15.0) |
| Feasibility | 33 (11.2) |
| Non-randomised trial | 12 (4.1) |
| Total | 294 (100) |
| Other | 814 (29.1) |
| Qualitative | 365 (44.8) |
| Audit | 150 (18.4) |
| Evaluation | 123 (15.1) |
| Mixed methods | 87 (10.7) |
| Other | 69 (8.5) |
| Implementation studies | 20 (2.5) |
| Total | 814 (100) |
| Filtered evidence | 167 (6.0) |
| Systematic reviews | 127 (76.0) |
| Guidelines | 40 (24.0) |
| Total | 167 (100) |
| Grand total | 2798 (100) |