Table 1 Quality assessment of trials of iron and/or folate on the incidence of anemia during pregnancy
From: Effect of routine iron supplementation with or without folic acid on anemia during pregnancy
| Â | Quality Assessment | Summary of Findings | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
No of studies (ref) | Design | Limitations | Consistency | Directness | No of events | Â | ||
| Â | Â | Â | Â | Generalizability to population of interest | Generalizability to intervention of interest | Intervention | Control | Relative Risk (95% CI) |
Daily iron versus no intervention/placebo Anemia at term: Moderate outcome specific quality | ||||||||
14 | RCT/quasi RCT | Studies with unclear or inadequate sequence generation and high loss to follow-up | All studies show direction of benefit, but high heterogeneity | Only two studies in developing countries, rest in developed nations | Yes | 114 | 313 | RR (random) = 0.27 [ 0.17, 0.42 ] |
Daily iron versus no intervention/placebo : Iron deficiency anemia at term: Moderate outcome specific quality | ||||||||
6 | RCT/quasi RCT | Studies with unclear or inadequate sequence generation and high loss to follow-up | All studies show direction of benefit, with borderline heterogeneity | Only one study in developing country, rest in developed | Yes | 25 | 68 | RR (random) = 0.33 [ 0.16, 0.69 ] |
Daily iron and folic acid versus no intervention/placebo : Anemia at term: Moderate outcome specific quality | ||||||||
3 | RCT/quasi-RCTs | High loss to follow-up and unclear sequence generation | Two studies show direction of benefit; while the third study had zero events | Only one study in developing country, rest in developed | Yes | 17 | 49 | RR (random) = 0.27 [ 0.12, 0.56 ] |
Daily iron and folic acid versus no intervention/placebo: Iron deficiency anemia at term: Low outcome specific quality | ||||||||
1 | RCT | Allocation concealment unclear and blinding inadequate | One study only | In a developed country | Yes | 12 | 5 | RR (random) = 0.43 [0.17, 1.09] |