EPOC inclusion criteria for study design
| Randomised controlled trial: |
| Participants (or other units) definitely assigned prospectively to one or more alternative forms of health care using a process of random allocation (e.g. random number generation, coin flips). |
| Controlled clinical trial: |
| Participants (or other units) were: |
| (a) Definitely assigned prospectively to one or more alternative forms of health care using a quasi-random allocation method (e.g. alternation, date of birth, patient identifier) or |
| (b) Possibly assigned prospectively to one or more alternative forms of health care using a process of random or quasi-random allocation. |
| Controlled before and after study: |
| Involvement of intervention and control groups other than by random process and inclusion of baseline period of assessment of main outcomes. There are two minimum criteria for inclusion of controlled before and after studies in EPOC reviews: |
| (a) Contemporaneous data collection |
| (b) Appropriate choice of control site |
| Interrupted time series: |
| A change in trend attributable to the intervention. There are two minimum criteria for inclusion of interrupted time series designs in EPOC reviews: |
| (a) A clearly defined point in time when the intervention occurred |
| (b) At least three data points before and three after the intervention. |