About the Authors

Stefan Schandelmaier

sschandelmaier@uhbs.ch

Affiliation Academy of Swiss Insurance Medicine, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Shanil Ebrahim

Affiliation Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Susan C. A. Burkhardt

Affiliation Academy of Swiss Insurance Medicine, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Wout E. L. de Boer

Affiliation Academy of Swiss Insurance Medicine, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Thomas Zumbrunn

Affiliation Clinical Trial Unit, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Gordon H. Guyatt

Affiliation Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Jason W. Busse

Affiliations Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Department of Anesthesia, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Regina Kunz

Affiliation Academy of Swiss Insurance Medicine, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Competing Interests

All authors have completed the Unified Competing Interest form at www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf (available on request from the corresponding author) and declare: no support from any organisation for the submitted work; asim, the Department of Insurance Medicine at the University Hospital in Basel, is funded in part by donations from public insurance companies and a consortium of private insurance companies (affiliated Authors: SS, SB, WdB, RK); JWB acts as a consultant to Prisma Health Canada, which is a private incorporated company funded by employers and insurers that consults on and manages long-term disability claims; no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: RK SS SB JB GG. Performed the experiments: SS RK SB WdB SE JB. Analyzed the data: TZ SS RK GG. Wrote the paper: SS SE SB WdB TZ JB GG RK. Developed the search strategy: SS RK. Performed the study selection: SS SB RK WdB. Appraised study quality: RK SS. Extracted study characteristics and outcome data: SE RK SS TZ. Performed consensus exercises: SE JWB SS RK WdB. Contributed to the interpretation and discussion of the results: SS SE SB WdB TZ JB GG RK.