9. Oral dexamethasone compared to nebulised dexamethasone for croup.

Oral dexamethasone compared to nebulised dexamethasone for croup
Patient or population: children with croup Intervention: oral dexamethasone Comparison: nebulised dexamethasone
Outcomes	Anticipated absolute effects* (95% CI)		Relative effect (95% CI)	№ of participants (studies)	Certainty of the evidence (GRADE)
	Nebulised dexamethasone	Oral dexamethasone
Return visits or (re)admissions or both	Study population		RR 0.39 (0.17 to 0.89)	176 (1 RCT)	⊕⊕⊝⊝ LOWa, b
	209 per 1000	81 per 1000 (35 to 186)
Adverse events	None of the studies reported collecting adverse events data.
*The risk in the intervention group (and its 95% confidence interval) is based on the assumed risk in the comparison group and the relative effect of the intervention (and its 95% CI). CI: confidence interval; RCT: randomised controlled trial; RR: risk ratio
GRADE Working Group grades of evidence High certainty: We are very confident that the true effect lies close to that of the estimate of the effect. Moderate certainty: We are moderately confident in the effect estimate: the true effect is likely to be close to the estimate of the effect, but there is a possibility that it is substantially different. Low certainty: Our confidence in the effect estimate is limited: the true effect may be substantially different from the estimate of the effect. Very low certainty: We have very little confidence in the effect estimate: the true effect is likely to be substantially different from the estimate of effect.

^aWe downgraded by one level for inconsistency. As there was only one study in the analysis, there was no evidence of consistency.
 ^bWe downgraded by one level for imprecision. The sample size was small (did not meet the optimal information size).