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Table 2 Criteria for ascertainment of evidence level for best-evidence synthesis, adapted from Lievense et al[15, 16]

From: The association between diet quality, dietary patterns and depression in adults: a systematic review

Level of evidence

Criteria for inclusion in best evidence synthesis

Strong evidence

Generally consistent findings in:

Multiple high-quality cohort studies

Moderate evidence

Generally consistent findings in:

    One high-quality cohort study and >2 high quality case-control studies

Limited evidence

Generally consistent findings in:

    Single cohort study

    One or two case-control studies or

    Multiple cross-sectional studies

Conflicting evidence

Inconsistent findings in <75% of the trials

No evidence

No studies could be found