Table 3.
Evidence summary of acute tonsillitis and acute pharyngitis: SFJD + conventional drug versus conventional drug.
| Certainty assessment |
№ of patients |
Effect |
Certainty | Importance | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| № of studies | Study design | Risk of bias | Inconsistency | Indirectness | Imprecision | Publication bias | SFJD +conventional drug | conventional drug | Relative(95% CI) | Absolute(95% CI) | ||
| Time to fever resolution | ||||||||||||
| 7 | RCTs | serious a | not serious | serious b | not serious | undetected | 348 | 340 | - | MD 1.13 d lower(1.36 lower to 0.90 lower) | ⊕⊕⊕◯MODERATE | CRITICAL |
| Time to fever resolution- adults | ||||||||||||
| 4 | RCTs | serious a | not serious | not serious | serious c | undetected | 195 | 195 | - | MD 1.24 d lower(1.46 lower to 1.01 lower) | ⊕⊕◯◯LOW | CRITICAL |
| Time to fever resolution - children | ||||||||||||
| 3 | RCTs | serious a | not serious | not serious | serious c | undetected | 153 | 145 | - | MD 0.93 d lower(1.30 lower to 0.55 lower) | ⊕⊕◯◯LOW | CRITICAL |
| Time to sore throat resolution | ||||||||||||
| 10 | RCTs | serious a | not serious | serious b | not serious | undetected | 601 | 593 | - | MD 1.13 d lower(1.40 lower to 0.86 lower) | ⊕⊕◯◯LOW | CRITICAL |
| Time to sore throat resolution - adults | ||||||||||||
| 7 | RCTs | serious a | serious d | not serious | not serious | undetected | 448 | 448 | - | MD 1.29 d lower(1.60 lower to 0.97 lower) | ⊕⊕◯◯LOW | CRITICAL |
| Time to sore throat resolution – children | ||||||||||||
| 3 | RCTs | serious a | not serious | not serious | serious c | undetected | 153 | 145 | - | MD 0.73 d lower(1.03 lower to 0.43 lower) | ⊕⊕◯◯LOW | CRITICAL |
| Cure rate | ||||||||||||
| 10 | RCTs | serious a | not serious | serious b | serious | undetected | 289/545 (53.0%) | 228/537(42.5%) | RR 1.26(1.13 to 1.41) | 110more per 1000(from 55 more to 174 more) | ⊕⊕◯◯LOW | IMPORTANT |
| cure rate - adults | ||||||||||||
| 7 | RCTs | serious a | not serious | not serious | serious | undetected | 239/392(61.0%) | 197/392 (50.3%) | RR 1.21(1.09 to 1.35) | 106 more per 1000(from 45 fewer to 176 more) | ⊕⊕⊕◯MODERATE | IMPORTANT |
| cure rate - children | ||||||||||||
| 3 | RCTs | serious a | not serious | not serious | serious e | undetected | 50/153 (32.7%) | 31/145 (21.4%) | RR 1.54(1.05 to 2.26) | 115 more per 1000(from 11 more to 269 more) | ⊕⊕◯◯LOW | IMPORTANT |
*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).
GRADE Working Group grades of evidence.
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;
Notes: CI, Confidence interval; MD, Mean difference; RCTs, Randomized controlled trial; RR, Risk ratio; SFJD, ShuFeng JieDu.
The blinding method was not used.
Indirectness of age (adults and children).
Number of patients included was less than 400.
I square value was large.
A small number of events of less than 300.