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Table 1 Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care (EPOC) risk of bias criteria

From: SWAT-1: The effectiveness of a ‘site visit’ intervention on recruitment rates in a multi-centre randomised trial

Risk of bias criterion

Judgement

Reason for judgement

Allocation sequence generation

High risk

Non-randomised method used

Allocation concealment

High risk

Controlled before and after study

Similarity in baseline outcome measurements

High risk

Although all sites had low recruitment prior to the intervention, this was imbalanced across the sites

Similarity in baseline characteristics

Low risk

Similar recruitment processes across sites

Incomplete outcome data addressed

Low risk

No missing data

Knowledge of the allocated intervention

Low risk

Objective outcomes, not affected by knowledge of the intervention

Protection against contamination

Low risk

Allocation was by study site

Free from selective reporting

Low risk

All pre-specified outcomes are reported

Free from other risks of bias

Unclear risk

Possible risk from confounders