Table 2 Quality assessment of studies on reduced lactose versus regular lactose liquid feeds
From: Dietary management of childhood diarrhea in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review
| Â | Â | QUALITY ASSESSMENT | SUMMARY OF FINDINGS | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Number of studies | Diarrhea mode | Design | Limitations | Consistency | Generalizability to population of interest | Overall quality of evidence | Number of events in intervention group | Number of events in control group | Effect size (95% CI) |
OUTCOME: DURATION OF DIARRHEA | Standardized Mean Difference | ||||||||
4 | Acute | RCT | Study quality ranges from low to high | Heterogeneous (I2= 82%) | Infants and young children (≤36m) with acute diarrhea, not severely malnourished, in LMICs | Low | - | - | -0.49 [-1.04, 0.07] |
0 | Persistent | RCT | No studies | - | - | - | - | - | - |
OUTCOME: STOOL OUTPUT | Standardized Mean Difference | ||||||||
3 | Acute | RCT | Study quality ranges from moderate to high | Consistent (I2= 41%) | Infants with acute diarrhea, not severely malnourished, in LMICs | Moderate | - | - | -0.18 [-0.56, 0.19] |
1 | Persistent | RCT | Single study of moderate quality | - | Non-malnourished, non-breastfed infants with persistent diarrhea in LMICs | Low | - | - | -0.25 (-0.73, 0.24) |
OUTCOME: WEIGHT GAIN | Standardized Mean Difference | ||||||||
2 | Acute | RCT | Only two studies, of moderate to high quality | Consistent (I2= 0%) | Infants with acute diarrhea, not severely malnourished, in LMICs | Moderate | - | - | -0.02 [-0.29, 0.25] |
1 | Persistent | RCT | Single study of moderate quality | - | Non-malnourished, non-breastfed infants with persistent diarrhea in LMICs | Low | - | - | 0.39 (-0.09, 0.87) |
OUTCOME: TREATMENT FAILURE | Risk Ratio | ||||||||
6 | Acute | RCT | Study quality ranges from moderate to high; two studies report zero event counts in both groups | Consistent (I2= 0%) | Infants and young children (≤48m) with acute diarrhea, not severely malnourished, in LMICs | Moderate | 30 | 31 | 1.08 [0.71, 1.64] |
1 | Persistent | RCT | Single study of moderate quality | - | Non-malnourished, non-breastfed infants with persistent diarrhea in LMICs | Low | 4 | 15 | 0.27 [0.10, 0.74] |