. 2023 Jul 31;10(8):1324. doi: 10.3390/children10081324

Table 4.

Long-term outcomes and certainty of evidence.

Certainty Assessment							№ of Patients		Effect		Certainty
№ of Studies	Study Design	Risk of Bias	Inconsistency	Indirectness	Imprecision	Other Considerations	MgSO₄ and School-Age Outcomes	Placebo	Relative (95% CI)	Absolute (95% CI)	Certainty
Cerebral palsy
2	randomized trials	serious ^a	not serious	not serious	serious ^b	none	53/513 (10.3%)	54/525 (10.3%)	RR 0.99 (0.69 to 1.41)	1 fewer per 1000 (from 32 fewer to 42 more)	⨁⨁○○LOW
Cerebral palsy (severe)
2	randomized trials	not serious	not serious	not serious	very serious ^b	none	9/513 (1.8%)	11/525 (2.1%)	RR 0.81 (0.34 to 1.92)	4 fewer per 1000 (from 14 fewer to 19 more)	⨁⨁○○LOW
Hearing impairment
2	randomized trials	serious ^a	not serious	not serious	serious ^b	none	15/498(3.0%)	21/515 (4.1%)	RR 0.72 (0.38 to 1.38)	11 fewer per 1000 (from 25 fewer to 15 more)	⨁⨁○○LOW
Neurosensory disability
2	randomized trials	serious ^a	not serious	not serious	serious ^b	none	199/475 (41.9%)	200/465 (43.0%)	RR 0.97 (0.87 to 1.08)	13 fewer per 1000 (from 56 fewer to 34 more)	⨁⨁○○LOW
Death at school-age
2	randomized trials	serious ^a	not serious	not serious	serious ^b	none	122/981 (12.4%)	148/962 (15.4%)	RR 0.81 (0.65 to 1.01)	29 fewer per 1000 (from 54 fewer to 2 more)	⨁⨁○○LOW
Maternal adverse events (any symptom)
3	randomized trials	not serious	serious ^c	not serious	serious ^b	none	1311/1628 (80.5%)	342/1667 (20.5%)	RR 2.79 (1.10 to 7.05)	367 more per 1000 (from 21 more to 1000 more)	⨁⨁○○LOW

CI: Confidence interval; RR: Risk ratio; Explanations; ^a Attrition bias was high; ^b Wide 95%CI crossing non-significant line; ^c I-square is over 85%. High heterogeneity. The degree of certainty was expressed as the number of ⊕.