Effectiveness of safety netting approaches for acutely ill children: a network meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Safety netting advice (SNA) can help in the management of acutely ill children. AIM: Assess the effectiveness of different SNA methods for acutely ill children on antibiotic prescription and consumption. DESIGN AND SETTING: Systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials, non-randomised trials of interventions, and controlled before-after studies in ambulatory care. METHOD: We searched MEDLINE, Embase, Web-Of-Science Core Collection, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (22 January 2024). We assessed the risk of bias (RoB) with the Cochrane Tool 2, Revised Cochrane Tool for Cluster-Randomised Trials, and ROBINS-I tool. Certainty of evidence was assessed using the CINeMA approach. We performed sensitivity analyses and network meta-regression. RESULTS: We included 30 studies (20 interventions). Compared to usual care, paper SNA may reduce antibiotic prescribing (OR=0.66 (95%CI: 0.53-0.85), I²=92%, very low certainty; 3 studies, 35,988 participants), especially when combined with oral SNA (OR=0.40 (95%CI: 0.08-2.00), P-score: 0.86), antibiotic consumption (OR=0.39 (95%CI: 0.27-0.58), low RoB; 1 study, 509 participants), and return visits (OR=0.74 , 95%CI 0.63-0.87). Paper SNA without antibiotics may reduce antibiotic consumption compared to paper SNA and delayed antibiotics (OR=0.27 (95%CI: 0.15-0.51, some RoB; 1 study, 206 participants). Video SNA, oral SNA, read-only websites, and web-based modules may increase parental knowledge (ORs 2.23-4.52). Video SNA and web-based modules may improve parental satisfaction (ORs 1.64-4.08). CONCLUSION: Paper SNA (with oral SNA) may reduce antibiotic use and return visits. Video, oral, and online SNA, may improve parental knowledge while video SNA and web-based modules may increase parental satisfaction.