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Table 5 Summary of certainty of evidence in predicting outcome and resource use using GRADE

From: A systematic review of neonatal treatment intensity scores and their potential application in low-resource setting hospitals for predicting mortality, morbidity and estimating resource use

Outcome

No. of studies

Factors that may decrease certainty of evidence*

Overall† certainty

Importance ‡

  

Limitations

Indirectness

Inconsistency

Imprecision

Reporting bias

  

Mortality

5 studies (n = 2594)

Serious

Serious

None

None

Unlikely

⊕⊕OO low

Critical

Morbidity

2 studies (n = 295)

Serious

Serious

None

None

Unlikely

⊕⊕OO low

Critical

Composite (Morbidity and Mortality)

2 studies

(n = 10,218)

Serious

Serious

None

None

Unlikely

⊕⊕OO low

Important

Nursing workload

3 studies (n = 317)

Serious

Serious

None

None

Unlikely

⊕⊕OO low

Critical

Hospital Costs

1 study

(n = 1768)

Serious

Serious

None

None

Unlikely

⊕⊕OO low

Important

Length of stay

1 study

(n = 1768)

Serious

Serious

None

None

Unlikely

⊕⊕OO low

Important

Time inputs

1 study

(n = 154)

Serious

Serious

None

None

Unlikely

⊕⊕OO low

Critical

Comparison of resource use

1 study

(n = 96)

Serious

Serious

None

None

Unlikely

⊕⊕OO low

Important

Rehabilitation

1 study

(n = 240)

Serious

Serious

None

None

Unlikely

⊕⊕OO low

Not important

  1. * From GRADE, Grading of Recommendations Applicability, Development and Evaluation
  2. †Certainty rating scale; high (⊕⊕⊕⊕), moderate, low, very low (OOOO)
  3. ‡Importance of outcomes (from GRADE)