“…After removing duplicates ( n = 20), the remaining studies were reviewed according to the title and the abstract, and then 807 studies were removed, leaving 29 full-text articles. Fifteen other studies were omitted because of the following reasons: (a) no control group (Bello et al, 2010; Cuesta-Vargas et al, 2011; Kanitz et al, 2021; Pires et al, 2015; Rezai et al, 2020); (b) lack of access to data (Johnson et al, 2016; McIlveen & Robertson, 1998); (c) study with a different population (Granath et al, 2006); and (d) studies with an active control group (Carvalho et al, 2020; Costantino & Romiti, 2014; Dundar et al, 2009; Peng et al, 2022; Prabhu & Dadmi, 2019; Ragia et al, 2021; Yozbatiran et al, 2004). Fourteen studies (Alikhajeh et al, 2020; Ansari et al, 2021; Baena-Beato et al, 2013, 2014; Cuesta-Vargas et al, 2012b; Han et al, 2011; Hossein Abadi et al, 2019b; Irandoust & Taheri, 2015; Janyacharoen et al, 2012; Keane, 2017; Khodaveisi et al, 2018; Mirmoezzi et al, 2021; Najafi Ghagholestani et al, 2022; Taheri & Irandoust, 2014) met our inclusion criteria and were entered in the meta-analysis (Table 1 and PRISMA flow diagram, shown in Figure 1).…”