Data Extraction and Management
Two independent reviewers (ZY and GXH) screened the titles and abstracts for potentially eligible studies identified by the primary search, and then reviewed the full texts to evaluate their final eligibility. The two authors cross-checked each other’s articles, and, in the case of any disagreement regarding extracted data, a third author (LY) was brought into the discussion. Decisions were made based on consensus.
After selecting articles for inclusion, we extracted the following data along with the intervention characteristics: first author, publication year, publication country, sample size, average patient age, intervention duration, intervention group, control group, follow-up time, outcomes.