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Figure 2 | BMC Infectious Diseases

Figure 2

From: What zinc supplementation does and does not achieve in diarrhea prevention: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Figure 2

Meta-analysis of the influence of preventive zinc supplementation on the incidence of diarrhea. (A) Forest plot showing the point (squares proportional to study weight) and 95% confidence interval (error bars) estimates for each study. Colored background indicates harm (pink) or benefit (blue) of zinc supplementation. Summary relative risk estimate is shown as a diamond both by the random effects model ("Overall") and corrected for the design effect from cluster-randomized trial ("Corrected for clustering effect"). The 95% prediction interval (PI) is shown as a standard normal curve. Suffixes a and b indicate comparisons within a single study against the same placebo as detailed in Supplementary Table (see Additional File 4). RR, relative risk; weight, percentage weight; Pr(OE) opposite effects proportion. (B) Funnel plot for the investigation of publication bias. (C) Cumulative meta-analyses of chronologically ordered studies. Results are shown as the point estimate of the effect size (purple diamonds aligned to the left y-axis) and the I2 statistic (blue squares aligned to the right y-axis). Results are shown from study group five onwards for which significant effects were observed (D) Contribution of calendar year to zinc supplementation. Results are represented as point estimates (diamonds) 95% CI (error bars) and 95% PI (standardized normal curves). Heterogeneity is shown as I2. The estimates for Ï„2 were: study groups 1-9: 0.0232 (95% CI 0.0029-0.1407); study groups 10-19: 0.0143 (95% CI 0.0033-0.0712); study groups 20-28: 0.0055 (95% CI 0.0000-0.0313); and study groups 29-38: 0.0062 (95% CI 0.0000-0.0231).

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