Results
| Study | Results | Metrics used |
|---|---|---|
| Allen et al11* | 12% sucrose no more effective than sterile water but more effective than no intervention during a single injection. No differences in groups for multiple injections | Mean crying time data obtained from author. Calculated SD |
| Barr et al12 | Sucrose group: reduction in crying time post injection at 2 and 4 months. No differences in cry duration during injection | Mean±SEM. SEM converted to SD for meta-analysis |
| Dilli et al13* | Sucrose and topical anaesthetic reduced cry duration and pain score compared to control. No differences between sucrose and topical anaesthetic | Median, range. Mean±SD supplied by author for metaanalysis |
| Hatfield et al15 | Reduced pain score in sucrose group at 5, 7 and 9 min following immunisation | Mean, 95% CI, SMD |
| Hatfield14 | Reduced pain score in sucrose group at 5 min following immunisation | Mean, 95% CI, SMD |
| Lewindon et al16 | Sucrose group: reduction in cry duration and pain score. No reduction in VAS | Mean±SD |
| Lindh et al17 | Combination of glucose and EMLA resulted in significant reduction in nurse and parent VAS, pain score, presence of cry and latency to cry | Mean±SD |
| No difference in total crying time. No difference in heart rate or HRV | ||
| Mörelius et al18 | Reduced salivary cortisol response and crying duration (s) in NNS and glucose, compared to NNS and water. No differences in any groups on parent VAS scores | Median and ORs for salivary cortisol. N and % for crying incidence. Means±SD for crying duration |
| Mowery19 | Sucrose group: reduced high pain score. No difference in cry duration and heart rate | Mean±SD |
| Poulsen20* | 12% sucrose no more effective than sterile water | Sum of differences and area under the pain/time curve |
| Reis et al22 | Sucrose group: reduction in cry duration and significantly higher parent preference for pain management | Cry duration and VAS scores: median and IQR Heart rate: mean±SD, 95% CI |
| No difference in heart rate, vaccination time or ease of administration of vaccination | ||
| Ramenghi et al21 | Sucrose group (50%): significantly reduced cry duration at 3 and 4 months | Median and IQR |
| Soriano and Gomez23 | Sucrose group (75%): clinically modest, statistically significant reduction in crying duration | Mean±SD |
| Thyr et al24 | Sucrose group: significant reduction in cry duration at 5 and 12 months immunisation, but not at 3 months | Mean and difference between groups for crying time |
| No difference in cry intensity at any time point | N and difference between groups for crying incidence |
↵* Additional data supplied by authors
HRV, heart rate variability; IQR, interquartile range; NNS, non-nutritive sucking; SMD, standardised mean difference; VAS, visual analogue scale.