Table 6.

Summary of evidence

Bibliographic reference	Study type	Number of participants	Participant characteristic	Intervention	Settings	Comparison	Length of follow-up	Outcome measures and effect size	Quality assessment	Additional comments
Aluka et al (2013)	RCT	N=88 4 – “rescued” 4 – dropped out	48 males 40 females; IG: age (mean, SD) – 36.23 (28.9) months CG: age (m, SD) – 42.84(32.1) months Initial temp (m, SD) – 38.8 (0.6) °C	Cold water sponging from head-to-toe by mother, caregiver or research assistant for 30mins	Nigeria	A single dose of 15mg/kg paracetamol	2 hours	Number of afebrile children 2 hours post intervention (calculated effect size in table 7). The sponging and paracetamol groups recorded a temp drop of 0.39°C and 1.6°C respectively	Moderate quality	Ambient temperature between 23.0°C and 33.0°C
Agbolosu et al (1997)	RCT	N=80	43 Males, 37 females; IG: age (mean, SD)– 19.1 (12.7) months; CG: age (m, SD) – 17.6 (12.04) months. Initial temp – 38.5 to 40°C diagnosis – 45 URTI, 31 Malaria, 4 Malaria/ URTI;	Head-to-toe sponging with water (28°C to 34°C), leaving a thin layer of water on the body. Repeated until temperature fell below 38.5°C	Malawi	A single dose of 15mg/kg paracetamol	2 hours	Number of afebrile children after 2 hours (calculated effect size in table 7) The sponging and paracetamol groups recorded a temp drop of 0.75°C and 1.83°C respectively	Moderate quality	Ambient temperature 21°C to 32°C

IG – intervention group; CG: control group; temp – temperature; SD – standard deviation; RCT – randomized controlled trial; m – mean