Baseline characteristics of the Delphi survey participants
| Patients and representatives | Health professionals | Researchers | |
| Study participants | 256 Patients 229 Caregivers 22 Representatives 5 | 488 Doctors 399 Nurses 53 Physiotherapists 17 Other health professionals 19 | 319 Doctors 230 Nurses 13 Physiotherapists 34 Other health professionals 7 Others¶ 35 |
| Completed second round | 197 (77.0) | 398 (81.6) | 291 (91.2) |
| Declared potential conflicts of interest | 3 (1.2) | 13 (2.7) | 17 (5.3) |
| Age (years) | |||
| 21–30 | 4 (1.6) | 74 (15.2) | 31 (9.7) |
| 31–40 | 10 (3.9) | 132 (27.0) | 91 (28.5) |
| 41–50 | 17 (6.6) | 109 (22.3) | 82 (25.8) |
| 51–60 | 56 (21.9) | 97 (19.9) | 64 (20.1) |
| 61–70 | 93 (36.3) | 62 (12.7) | 45 (14.1) |
| 71–80 | 66 (25.8) | 12 (2.5) | 6 (1.9) |
| 81–90 | 9 (3.5) | 2 (0.4) | 0 (0.0) |
| >90 | 1 (0.4) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) |
| Female | 112 (43.8) | 277 (56.8) | 140 (43.9) |
| Continent | |||
| Africa | 1 (0.4) | 6 (1.2) | 12 (3.8) |
| Americas | 44 (17.2) | 78 (16.0) | 51 (16.0) |
| Asia | 14 (5.5) | 68 (13.9) | 32 (10.0) |
| Europe | 175 (68.4) | 325 (66.6) | 201 (63.0) |
| Oceania | 22 (8.6) | 11 (2.3) | 23 (7.2) |
| Economy# | |||
| Low | 0 (0.0) | 1 (0.2) | 3 (0.9) |
| Lower middle | 12 (4.7) | 59 (12.1) | 19 (6.0) |
| Upper middle | 20 (7.8) | 125 (25.6) | 57 (17.9) |
| High | 170 (66.4) | 246 (50.4) | 175 (54.9) |
| Conducting research | 2 (0.8) | 187 (38.3) | 283 (88.7) |
| Designing research studies | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 319 (100) |
| Predominantly working on research | 0 (0.0) | 21 (4.3) | 59 (18.5) |
| Development of guidelines | 0 (0.0) | 95 (19.5) | 161 (50.5) |
Data are presented as n or n (% of the participants in the corresponding stakeholder group). #: economy of the participants’ country, according to the World Bank classification 2021. ¶: researchers and not health professionals; policy makers; regulators.