38 This tool uses three broad categories to address study validity, methodology, recruitment styles and appropriateness, validation of exposure status and measurements, confounding variables and study outcome.
Assessments for eligibility, relevance, study validity and data extraction were performed by two reviewers independently using prespecified criteria.
We also collected data on factors relating to study validity and reliability measures for cohort, case control, and experimental study designs.
However, several aspects of the internal study validity (i.e., study design, methods, and co-factors) were not considered in every study.
Although already considered in most of the included studies, future investigations on tendon adaptation should account for these methodological quality criteria to ensure high study validity.
Some limitations are typical of studies like ours, so we discuss the study validity with respect to common threats to validity.
The majority of the coding features, including study authors, study publication date, locale, and research design type, were extracted to support the study validity.
CASP has released critical appraisal checklists for different types of research studies that cover three main areas of a study: validity, results, and clinical relevance [45].
This study uses multiple methods to collect data from various sources in order to improve study validity by using qualitative and quantitative surveys.
The total methodological quality score used in the present meta-analysis ranged from 61% to 99% with a mean of 71% ± 9%, indicating adequate to high methodological qualities for most studies and, thus, study validity.
Using structured questionnaires improves study validity and reliability – as they are more sensitive to perform differential diagnoses [49] and have more agreement between raters than unstructured evaluations [50].
