Table 5.
Quality assessment of studies on commercial/specialized ingredients versus home-available ingredients
| 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 | ||||||||
| 3 | Acute | RCT | Study quality ranges from moderate to high | Consistent (I2= 0%) | Infants and young children (≤24m) with acute diarrhea, without severe malnutrition, in LMICs | Moderate | - | - | -0.13 [-0.36, 0.09] |
| 3 | Persistent | RCT | Studies of moderate quality | Consistent (I2= 0%) | Malnourished infants and young children (≤36m) with persistent diarrhea in LMICs | Moderate | - | - | -0.03 [-0.37, 0.32] |
| OUTCOME: STOOL OUTPUT | Standardized Mean Difference | ||||||||
| 4 | Acute | RCT | Study quality ranges from moderate to high | Consistent (I2= 0%) | Infants and young children (≤36m) with acute diarrhea, without severe malnutrition, in LMICs | Moderate | - | - | 0.15 [-0.06, 0.36] |
| 3 | Persistent | RCT | Studies of moderate quality | Consistent (I2= 25%) | Malnourished infants and young children (≤36m) with persistent diarrhea in LMICs | Moderate | - | - | 0.16 [-0.23, 0.54] |
| OUTCOME: WEIGHT GAIN | Standardized Mean Difference | ||||||||
| 5 | Acute | RCT | Study quality ranges from moderate to high | Heterogeneous (I2= 58%) | Infants and young children (≤36m) with acute diarrhea, without severe malnutrition, in LMICs | Moderate | - | - | -0.09 [-0.40, 0.23] |
| 4 | Persistent | RCT | Study quality ranges from low to moderate | Heterogeneous (I2= 88%) | Malnourished infants and young children (≤36m) with persistent diarrhea in LMICs | Low | - | - | 0.04 (-0.90, 0.97) |
| OUTCOME: TREATMENT FAILURE | Risk Ratio | ||||||||
| 8 | Acute | RCT | Study quality ranges from moderate to high | Heterogeneous (I2= 49%) | Infants and young children (≤36m) with acute diarrhea, without severe malnutrition, in LMICs | Moderate | 34 | 25 | 0.82 [0.37, 1.79] |
| 5 | Persistent | RCT | Study quality ranges from low to high; nutritional status ranges from non-malnourished to severely malnourished | Heterogeneous (I2= 67%) | Infants and young children (≤36m) with persistent diarrhea in LMICs | Low | 21 | 22 | 0.55 [0.17, 1.74] |