There is evidence of much heterogeneity in the outcome measures chosen and used in nutrition studies and trials in paediatric intensive care (PIC). As most studies in PIC are small and single centre (and frequently underpowered) the need to combine data sets for analysis can be of paramount importance. The heterogeneity in outcome measures used and their definition creates challenges for researchers and prevents comparison of multiple studies in a meta-analysis. As a result, there is an urgent need to systematically describe outcome measures used in these studies, specifically in children, before proceeding to an International Delphi study to agree a standardised core outcome set (COS) to be used in future nutrition trials.
ContributorsDr Lyvonne Tume (Lead)
Dr Kunal Gadhvi
Dr Frederic Valla
Dr Nilesh Mehta
Dr Bodil Larsen
Dr Yara Moreno
Dr Alejandro Floh
Dr Praveen Goday
Dr Jan Hau Lee
Dr Nazima Patham
Dr Sascha Verbruggen
Dr Corinne Jotterand
Disease Category: Child health
Disease Name: Critical illness
Age Range: 0 - 17
Sex: Either
Nature of Intervention: Diet and nutrition, Intensive care
- Clinical experts
- Methodologists
- Researchers
- COS for clinical trials or clinical research
- COS for practice
- Delphi process
- Systematic review
A systematic search for all studies involving an aspect of nutritional practice or intervention in pediatric critical care will be undertaken. First trials will be examined and then this will be extended to other study designs and published trial protocols where appropriate. Primary and secondary outcomes will be extracted using a standardised pre-tested data extraction tool. Two reviewers will independently screen articles for eligibility and conduct data extraction and review the study quality for al primary and secondary outcomes. This will be followed by a modified 3 round Delphi study of international experts.