Table 2 Quality of evidence for treatment of diarrhea with probiotics for diarrhea duration and stool frequency on day 2
From: Systematic review of probiotics for the treatment of community-acquired acute diarrhea in children
Quality assessment | Summary of findings | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Directness | ||||||
No. of studies (study arms) | Design | Limitations | Consistency | Generalizability to population of interest | Generalizability to intervention of interest | Average percent difference (95% CI) |
Diarrhea duration | ||||||
6(10) | RCT | Different doses/day; variable treatment duration; not double blinded, small n, placebo not described (-0.5) | 8/10 arms in the positive direction; 4/10 results statistically significant (-0.5) | Algeria, Italy, Brazil, Belgium, India, Taiwan (-0.5) | Mixtures prevent analysis of individual effect sizes, not enough data to make a statement about each probiotic strain (-0.5) | -14.0 (-24.2 – -3.8%) |
3(3) | RCT | Different doses/day; variable treatment duration; not double blinded (-0.5) | 3/3 studies in the positive direction; 1/3 study results statistically significant | Italy, Brazil, India | Generalizable | -16.0 (-53.9 – 22.0%) |
Stool frequency (Day 2) | ||||||
5(9) | RCT | Not double blinded, small n, placebo not described (-0.5) | 5/9 arms in the positive direction; 4/9 results statistically significant (-0.5) | Italy, Iran, Mexico, Taiwan, Belgium | Mixtures prevent analysis of individual effect sizes, not enough data to make a statement about each probiotic strain (-0.5) | -13.1 (-25.3 – -0.8%) |
Diarrhea duration (study arms): LGG (3), S. boulardii (1), Bacillus clausii (1), Enterococcus faecium (1), Mix A*(1), Mix B**(1), Mix C***(1), Mix D****(1) | ||||||
Stool frequency (study arms): LGG (1), S. boulardii (2), Bacillus clausii (1), Enterococcus faecium (1), L. acidophilus (1), Mix A*(1), Mix B**(1), Mix C***(1) | ||||||