Meta-analysis of probiotics for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome

Table 4 Outcome assessment and reporting for 20 included clinical trials of probiotics for IBS

	Outcome
Reference	Global response	Abdominal pain	Bloating/distension	Flatulence	Stool frequency	Mucous	Stool consistency	Dyspepsia
Maupas[45]	R	R	R		R		R	R
Gade[46]	R	R	R	R			R
Halpern[47]	R	A	A		A	A	A
Nobaek[48]	R	R		R	A		R
O’Sullivan[49]		R	R	A	R		A
Niedzielin[50]	R	R		R	A		A
Kim[51]	R	R	R	R	R		R
Bausserman[52]	A	R	R	A			A
Bittner[53]		A		A				A
Kajander[54]	R	R	R	R	R	A	A
Kim[55]		R	R	R	R		R
Niv[56]		R	R	R	A
O’Mahony[17]	R	R	R		A		R
Kim[57]		R	A	A	A		A
Simren[58]	R	A	A	A	A	A	A
Whorwell[35]	R	R	R	R	A
Enck[59]	R	R	A		A		A
Gawronska[60]		R
Marteau[61]	R	R			A		A
Simren[62]	R	A	A
Percent reporting	65%	80%	50%	40%	25%	0	30%	5%

A: Assessed; R: Reported in sufficient detail to allow extraction of data. Bold font indicates that this was the primary outcome identified by the authors for analysis. If author reported no difference between active and placebo groups for a given symptom, but did provide further details, the outcome was classified as assessed only.