Table 1.

Characteristics of included studies

Author	Design	Country	Sample size	Gestational age	Intervention	Comparison	Follow up	Outcomes	Outcome measures	Results
Tekgündüz et al., 2014 [16]	Quasi-experimental	Turkey	27	28 to 32 weeks	Abdominal massage 2 times daily for 5 days (each time = 15 min)	Routine Care	Last day	GRV, frequency of vomiting, abdominal circumference	Syringe, observation, meter	There was statistically significant difference between first day and last day in massage group.
Shaeri et al., 2017 [19]	RCT	Iran	64	29 to 33 weeks	Abdominal massage performed by a researcher 2 times daily for 5 days (each time = 15 min)	Routine Care	Last day	GRV, frequency of vomiting, abdominal circumference	Syringe, observation, meter	GRV, frequency of vomiting and abdominal circumference significantly reduced in the massage group, as compared the control group.
Mohamed & Ahmed, 2018 [15]	Quasi-experimental	Egypt	60	28 to 36 weeks	Abdominal massage performed 2 times daily for 5 days (each time = 15 min)	Routine Care	5th days of intervention	GRV, frequency of vomiting, abdominal circumference	Novel neonatal feeding intolerance tool.	There was statistically significant difference between first day and last day in massage group.
Ghasemi et al., 2019 [20]	RCT	Iran	28	Mean age was 32.4 weeks in intervention and 33 weeks in control groups	Abdominal massage performed by a trained physiotherapist 2 times daily for 5 days (each time = 15 min)	Routine Care	5th days of intervention	GRV	Syringe	GRV Significantly reduced in the massage group, as compared with the control group
Choi et al., 2015 [17]	Pilot study	South Korea	20	30 to 34 weeks	Massage (based on written protocol) performed 2 times daily for 14 days (each time = 15 min)	Routine Care	14th days of intervention	The number of gastric residual, abdominal circumference	GRV measured by a Syringe and the number of gastric residual recorded.	Frequency of gastric residual Significantly reduced in the massage group, as compared control group.
Fazli et al., 2017 [18]	RCT	Iran	34	30 to 34 weeks	Abdominal massage performed 2 times daily for 7 days (each time = 15 min)	Routine Care	“During the intervention days”	The number of gastric residual, frequency of vomiting	Vomiting and gastric residual recoded using nurses’ reports	Frequency of vomiting was significantly low in the massage group, but there was no significantly difference between two groups in terms of vomiting.
Karbandi et al., 2013 [13]	RCT	Iran	60	28 to 37 weeks	Passive massage movements performed daily in tree times for 5 days (each time = 15 min)	Routine Care	Last day	Feeding intolerance	Observations conducted by a researcher or nurses and recorded.	Feeding intolerance was significantly low in the massage group.
Fouda et al., 2018 [14]	Quasi-experimental	Egypt	60	<  37 week	Abdominal massage: 2 times daily for 7 days (each time = 15 min.	Routine Care	During 7 days	GRV, Vomiting.	Nutritional Assessment of Premature Neonate tool	In the end of 7th days, none of infants in both intervention groups had gastric residual and vomiting compared to the control group.