The study was conducted along Cochrane collaboration and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement guidelines.
We followed the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) statement guidelines for observational cohort studies [15].
This was a retrospective case-control study and is reported in accordance with The Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) Statement: Guidelines for Reporting Observational Studies [12].
To perform the systematic review on the 1-year period of 2013, we followed the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis) statement guidelines [14].
The PRISMA statement guidelines were followed.
Figure 1 describes the participants in the study according to the STROBE Statement guidelines [ 4].
We used the STROBE statement guidelines to assess the quality of individual studies.
The study is a two-armed RCT designed in accordance with the CONSORT statement guidelines [ 21].
This investigation complied with the recommendations of the STROBE statement guidelines.
This systematic review and meta-analysis follows the QUOROM statement guidelines (Moher et al. 1999).
