Table 1.
Comparative studies on impact of high‐ versus low‐dose GC on disease‐related outcomes and treatment‐related adverse events
| Certainty Assessment | Number of Patients | Effect | Certainty | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. of studies | Study design | Risk of bias | Inconsistency | Indirectness | Imprecision | Other considerations | Low‐dose GCs (<30 mg/d) | High‐dose GCs (>30 mg/d) |
Relative (95% CI) |
Absolute (95% CI) |
|
| Relapse | |||||||||||
| 1 | Observational studies | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | Serious a | Strong association | 20/39 (51.3%) | 18/57 (31.6%) |
OR 2.28 (0.98 to 5.28) |
197 more per 1000 (from 4 fewer to 393 more) |
⨁⨁◯◯ LOW |
| Death | |||||||||||
| 1 | Observational studies | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | Very serious a | None | 2/39 (5.1%) | 3/57 (5.3%) |
OR 0.97 (0.15 to 6.11) |
1 fewer per 1000 (from 44 fewer to 201 more) |
⨁◯◯◯ VERY LOW |
| Serious adverse events | |||||||||||
| 1 | Observational studies | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | Serious a | Strong association | 22/39 (56.4%) | 45/57 (78.9%) |
OR 0.35 (0.14 to 0.85) |
222 fewer per 1000 (from 445 fewer to 28 fewer) |
⨁⨁◯◯ LOW |
See Mutoh et al for reference.
Abbreviations: CI, confidence interval; GC, glucocorticoid; OR, odds ratio.
a
The lower versus upper limits of the CI would lead to different clinic decisions.