2.7 Statistical analysis
RECRUITMENT
The data analysis was performed by a statistician who did not participate in the recruitment, evaluation and treatment aspects of the study. The study homogeneity was analyzed using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. The data analysis was performed on an intention-to-treat basis. For the missing data, results obtained in the last available assessment of each participant were repeated. The time and group (4 × 2) of each outcome variable was analyzed with linear mixed model (LMM) analysis. The effects between the active and sham groups were analyzed by between group analysis and the intra group effects were analyzed by within group analysis for various intervals. The mean difference (MD) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were also calculated for each between-group comparison. The statistical analyses were processed using a commercial statistical software (IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows—version 20.0) and a level of significance of p≤0.05 was adopted for all tests.