What measures were used to express the effects of treatment?
When dichotomous outcomes were used to assess the effects of treatment, such as all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, kidney failure, and cardiovascular events (e.g. myocardial infarction, stroke, or heart failure), the relative risk (RR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was used. When continuous scales of measurement were used to assess the effects of treatment, such as body weight, the mean difference (MD) with 95% CI was used.