Table 1 Eligibility criteria
Component | Inclusion and exclusion criteria | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
Population | Studies that include chiropractors and their patients. The inclusion criteria for chiropractors were to be licensed practitioners. If the study involved data collected from other healthcare providers or stakeholders, the study was included only if the data collected from eligible participants could be differentiated from the rest | To study working alliance (WA) in the context of the chiropractor–patient relationship |
Phenomena of interest | Studies which have either explored WA between a patient and a chiropractor or have implicitly or explicitly explored one or more of the three features of WA proposed by Bordin [11]: agreement on goals, agreement and collaboration on the tasks required to achieve these goals and the establishment of a bond | To synthesise all findings relevant to the research questions, including the different constructs that relate to WA and any information relevant to the conceptualisation of WA in the context of the profession |
Context | The eligibility criteria were not bound to a specific country, ethnicity, or settings, but excluded studies exploring the WA in the context of physiotherapy, osteopathy, or alternative and complementary therapies other than chiropractic | To study WA between a patient and a chiropractor in different contexts |