Table 1 GRADE summary of evidence table for key outcomes
Certainty assessment | No of patients | Effect | Certainty | Importance | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
No of studies | Study design | Risk of bias | Inconsis-tency | Indirec-tness | Impre-cision | Permissive underfeeding | Control | Relative (95% CI) | Absolute (95% CI) | ||
Length of hospital stay (day) | |||||||||||
6 | Randomised trials | Seriousa | Seriousb | Not serious | Not serious | 318 | 319 | – | MD 1.11 higher (2.16 lower to 4.38 higher) | ⨁⨁◯◯ Low | IMPORTANT |
Overall mortality | |||||||||||
19 | Randomised trials | Not serious | Seriousc | Not serious | Not serious | 1697/5610 (30.2%) | 1760/5571 (31.6%) | RR 0.96 (0.91–1.01) | 13 fewer per 1000 (from 28 fewer to 3 more) | ⨁⨁⨁◯ Moderate | CRITICAL |
In-hospital mortality | |||||||||||
9 | Randomised trials | Not serious | Seriousa | Not serious | Not serious | 1266/4792 (26.4%) | 1318/4771 (27.6%) | RR 0.95 (0.89–1.02) | 14 fewer per 1000 (from 30 fewer to 6 more) | ⨁⨁⨁◯ Moderate | CRITICAL |
ICU mortality | |||||||||||
5 | Randomised trials | Seriousa | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | 562/2181 (25.8%) | 627/2180 (28.8%) | RR 0.90 (0.81–0.99) | 29 fewer per 1000 (from 55 to 3 fewer) | ⨁⨁⨁◯ Moderate | CRITICAL |
Incidence of overall infection | |||||||||||
14 | Randomised trials | Seriousa | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | 839/4904 (17.1%) | 893/4878 (18.3%) | RR 0.92 (0.79–1.06) | 15 fewer per 1000 (from 38 fewer to 11 more) | ⨁⨁⨁◯ Moderate | IMPORTANT |
Incidence of gastrointestinal adverse events | |||||||||||
9 | Randomised trials | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | 1720/4213 (40.8%) | 2017/4210 (47.9%) | RR 0.79 (0.69–0.90) | 101 fewer per 1000 (from 149 to 48 fewer) | ⨁⨁⨁⨁ High | IMPORTANT |
Mechanical ventilation duration (day) | |||||||||||
3 | Randomised trials | Seriousa | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | 206 | 205 | – | MD 1.85 lower (3.44 lower to 0.27 lower) | ⨁⨁⨁◯ Moderate | IMPORTANT |