Introduction: Over the years several criteria lists have been developed to be used in quality assessment of RCTs. A quality criteria list can be used in different ways. It can be used in systematic reviews in which the summarization of the results is based on methodological criteria, and to determine strata of methodologic quality upon which you can decide which RCTs have sufficient quality to allow for pooling in a meta-analysis. It has been shown that the use of different lists for systematic reviews changes the conclusion of the review. We are interested in these effects by using three different criteria lists for quality assessment in a systematic review.

Objective: To assess if the use of different criteria lists changes the outcomes of a systematic review or meta-analysis.

Methods: A data set of 28 articles of a systematic review concerning the efficacy of 904 nm laser therapy in musculosceletal disorders is used. The three list used are: the 'Jadad-list' of 3 items, developed by Alejandro Jadad, the 'Maastricht list', developed at the University of Limburg and the 'preliminary Delphi-list' of 7 items. This list contains the preliminary results of the development of a consensus criteria list by means of the Delphi method. Articles are reviewed by two reviewers independently and scores are determined in a consensus meeting. The difference is ranking, and the possible differences in strata of methodologic quality will be determined.

Results: We will present the results of this research at the Colloquium.