In the case of use of different measurement scales, standardised mean difference (SMD) analysis with 95% CI will be performed.
The weighed mean difference this analysis was 0.25 SD (95 % CI 0.08-0.43, randomodelel), which was also not significantly different (p=0.98) from the primary analysis (in Figure 4A).
Standardised economic evaluation techniques including incremental analysis of mean differences, dominance analysis (where more than two interventions are compared) and bootstrapping to determine CIs will be used in the evaluation.
For mean difference meta-analysis, one calculates a difference in mean values between the experimental and control groups for each study.
Weighted mean difference meta-analysis was carried out using Review Manager software (RevMan Version 5.2.11, The Cochrane Collaboration, London, UK) [ 13] to assess the effect of age of introduction of solids on iron status and linear growth (weight, length and head circumference).
We used the random effects approach of DerSimonian and Laird based on mean differences for analysis of time to first alleviation of symptoms.
As the studies had used different validated questionnaires to measure knowledge, the standardised mean difference method of analysis was used.
The weighted mean difference for this analysis was 0.34 SD (95 % CI 0.11-0.57, randomodelel), which was not significantly different (p=0.96) from the primary analysis (in Figure 2A).
There was a significant reduction in the duration of total URTI symptoms (days) in the active group compared with the placebo (PP analysis; mean difference: −21.0, 95% CI:−35.9, −6.0, P=0.006, ITT analysis; mean difference: −17.9, 95% CI:−31.6, −4.2, P=0.011; Table 2).
