Effects of Whole-Body Vibration Therapy in Patients with Fibromyalgia: A Systematic Literature Review

Table 1

Risk of bias and level of evidence.

Clinical trial

Reference

Response to each item on the PEDro scale

Level of evidence

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

Total score

Alentorn-Geli et al.

[29]

y

y

n

y

y

n

y

y

n

y

Y

7

B

[27]

y

y

n

y

y

n

n

y

n

y

Y

6

B

Gusi et al.

[30]

y

y

y

y

n

n

y

y

y

y

Y

8

B

[31]

y

y

y

y

n

n

y

y

y

y

Y

8

B

[32]

y

y

y

y

n

n

y

y

n

y

Y

7

B

Sañudo et al.

[33]

y

y

y

y

n

n

n

y

n

y

Y

6

B

[34]

y

y

y

y

n

n

n

y

n

y

Y

6

B

Sañudo et al.

[28]

y

y

y

y

n

n

n

y

y

y

Y

7

B

n: criterion not fulfilled; y: criterion fulfilled; 1: eligibility criteria were specified; 2: subjects were randomly allocated to groups or to a treatment order; 3: allocation was concealed; 4: the groups were similar at baseline; 5: there was blinding of all subjects; 6: there was blinding of all therapists; 7: there was blinding of all assessors; 8: measures of at least one key outcome were obtained from more than 85% of the subjects who were initially allocated to groups; 9: intention-to-treat analysis was performed on all subjects who received the treatment or control condition as allocated; 10: the results of between-group statistical comparisons are reported for at least one key outcome; 11: the study provides both point measures and measures of variability for at least one key outcome; total score: each satisfied item (except the first) contributes 1 point to the total score, yielding a PEDro scale score that can range from 0 to 10. B: the level of evidence was B (randomised control trials that lacked double-blinding) (see the Appendix).