Grade table 8

Question: Homemade spacers versus commercial spacers for acute therapy in children

Settings:

Bibliography: Rodriguez-Martinez CE et al. (7) (no new studies as of December 2010)

Quality assessmentSummary of findingsImportance
No of patientsEffectsQuality
No of studiesDesignLimitationsInconsistencyIndirectnessImprecisionOther considerationsHomemade spacers versus commercial spacersControlRelative (95% CI)Absolute
Hospital admission
1randomised trialsserious1no serious inconsistencyserious2serious3none30/200 (15%)30/200 (15%)not poolednot pooled⊕○○○
VERY LOW		IMPORTANT
O2 saturation (SpO2) (better indicated by lower values)
2randomised trialsserious1no serious inconsistencyserious2serious3none6159–SMD 0.03 lower (0.39 lower to 0.33 higher)⊕○○○
VERY LOW		–
PEFR (better indicated by lower values)
2randomised trialsserious1no serious inconsistencyserious2serious3none4545–SMD 0.04 higher (0.72 lower to 0.8 higher)⊕○○○
VERY LOW		–
Clinical score (better indicated by lower values)
1randomised trialsserious1no serious inconsistencyserious2serious3none1010–MD 0 higher (0.37 lower to 0.37 higher)⊕○○○
VERY LOW		IMPORTANT
Heart rate per minute (better indicated by lower values)
3randomised trialsserious1no serious inconsistencyserious2serious3none7169–SMD 0.09 higher (0.24 lower to 0.42 higher)⊕○○○
VERY LOW		–
Need for additional treatment
3randomised trialsserious1no serious inconsistencyserious2,4serious3none75/298 (25.2%)46/254 (18.1%)RR 1.18 (0.84 to 1.65)33 more per 1000 (from 29 fewer to 118 more)⊕○○○
VERY LOW		IMPORTANT
1

Allocation concealment unclear, single-blind.

2

Hospital emergency department or clinic setting.

3

CIs include clinically important differences in both directions.

4

Children treated with fenoterol and not salbutamol in one study.

From: Annex 4, Grade tables

Cover of Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases
Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases: Guidelines for Primary Health Care in Low Resource Settings.
Copyright © 2012, World Health Organization.

All rights reserved. Publications of the World Health Organization are available on the WHO web site (www.who.int) or can be purchased from WHO Press, World Health Organization, 20 Avenue Appia, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland (tel.: +41 22 791 3264; fax: +41 22 791 4857; e-mail: tni.ohw@sredrokoob).

Requests for permission to reproduce or translate WHO publications – whether for sale or for noncommercial distribution – should be addressed to WHO Press through the WHO web site (http://www.who.int/about/licensing/copyright_form/en/index.html).

NCBI Bookshelf. A service of the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health.