Table 7

NHMRC body of evidence framework

Component

Grade

Comments

Evidence Base

D-Poor

• Total of 5 studies

Level IV studies or level I to III studies with risk of bias

• Total of 135 male athletes

• L II: 1 study

• L IV: 4 studies

• Quality of studies (table 4 in text)

Consistency

B-Good

• Population: Australian football, soccer & others

Most studies consistent and inconsistencies may be explained

• Outcomes used: 4/5 studies used return to sport; 4/5 used subjective scores

• While most studies consistently reported on the positive effects of exercises for groin pain, there is variability in the populations included, interventions provided and outcomes measured potentially leading to heterogeneity

Clinical Impact

C – Satisfactory

• Presently only one high level, high quality publications in the literature

Moderate

• The clinical impact from available evidence base is only satisfactory as vital information on effect size, comparison with other management options are missing

• The current evidence base also focused on mainly subjective measures of outcomes

Generalisability

B-Good

Population(s) studied in the body of evidence are similar to the target population

• Population studied in the evidence base is similar to the target population

• However, the current evidence base lack clarity in terms of diagnosis, injury periods and predominately focused on the male sporting population

Grade of Recommendation

D- Poor

• Limited number of studies were identified from the literature

Body of evidence is weak and recommendation should be applied with caution

• Overall, these studies were low level and were of moderate quality

• While the findings were consistent, there were issues with varying diagnostic criteria, poor description of interventions, differing outcome measures and lack of long term follow up

I = Intensity A: more than 3 sets of 10 repetitions or more than one minute of continuous work) B: less than 3 sets of 10 repetitions or less than one minute of continuous work) F = Frequency (sessions per week) * = Increased by 1 minute per day NR = not recorded

Machotka et al. Sports Medicine, Arthroscopy, Rehabilitation, Therapy & Technology 2009 1:5   doi:10.1186/1758-2555-1-5