Table 1. Comparison of systemic corticosteroids versus no treatment in children for (A) early clinical failure and (B) time to clinical cure

(A) Early clinical failure
Pneumonia	Corticosteroids	Control	Risk ratio (95% CI)	Weight	I2
Luo 2014	3/15	11/14	0.25 (0.09 to 0.73)	39.14%
Nagy 2013	9/29	18/30	0.52 (0.28 to 0.96)	60.86%
Total	44	44	0.41 (0.24 to 0.70)	100.0%	24.65%

(B) Time to clinical cure (days)
Pneumonia	Corticosteroids, mean (SD, N)	Control, mean (SD, N)	Mean difference (95% CI)	Weight	I2
Luo 2014	1.9 (0.9, 28)	2.7 (1.1, 30)	-0.80 (-1.32 to -0.28)	38.4%
Nagy 2013	2.3 (2.3, 29)	4.3 (2.3, 30)	-2.00 (-3.19 to -0.81)	26.12%
Wu 2014	3.2 (1.3, 55)	5.3 (2.2, 53)	-2.10 (-2.78 to -1.42)	35.48%
Total	112	113	-1.57 (-2.55 to -0.6)	100.0%	80.23%

CI, confidence interval; SD, standard deviation.
P-values marked with bold indicate statistically significant differences between the groups (P<0.05).