Table 4.
Summary of evidence and recommendations for single interventions
| Evidence | Recommendations | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intervention | Type of interventions | Types of studies | Date | Findings | Certainty of the evidencea | Recommendations across reviewed documents | Strength of recommendationsa |
| Vitamin D | Effectiveness of vit D supplementation for preventing nutritional rickets in term born children (clinical and radiological outcomes) |
SR (4 trials, 1700 participants) RCT Surveillance data |
SR 2007 Studies 1994 to 2004 |
Vit D supplementation prevents from developing rickets | High quality evidence according to European global consensus |
- WHO: acknowledges effectiveness, but requests further research for specific recommendations - PrevInfad, CDC, NICE, Global European consensus recommend |
- WHO: category 2 intervention - PrevInfad: Grade B - European global consensus: strong |
| Effectiveness of vit D supplementation for improving bone mineral density (BMD) | SR (6 RCTs, 884 participants) |
SR 2010 Studies 2004 to 2008 |
No effect on total body BMD or lumbar spinal BMD. Probably no effect on hip BMD and forearm BMD. |
High certainty evidence Moderate certainty evidence |
|||
| Vitamin K | Effectiveness of vit K for preventing HDN (clinical outcome: bleeding) | SR (2 RCTs, only for classical HDN and IM) | Studies 1960’s | Effective |
Not graded by Cochrane authors but referred as ‘poor methodological quality’ Graded as low-moderate by WHO |
Recommended by all institutions | Strong (WHO, PrevInfad) |
| Effectiveness of vit K for preventing HDN (biochemical outcomes) | SR (5 RCTs, only for classical HDN, IM and oral) | Studies 1990’s | Effective | ||||
| Intramuscular versus oral |
No RCT National surveillance data |
Last 3 decades | Both intramuscular and oral effective | Not applicable | |||
| Fluoride | Toothbrushing for preventing dental caries | SRs |
SR 2019 Studies 1982 to 2014 |
Effective | Moderate | Recommended by all institutions | B recommendation (USPSTF); strength of the evidence I (NHS) |
Abbreviations: BMD Bone mineral density, CDC Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, HDN Haemorrhage disease of the newborn, NHS National Health Service, NICE National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, RCT Randomized control trial, SR Systematic review, USPSTF United States Preventive Services Task Force, vit Vitamin
aAs per the authors of the retrieved documents