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Table 1 Eligibility criteria using the PICOTSS (Patients, Interventions, Comparators, Outcomes, Timing, Setting, and Study Design) format

From: Massage therapy in infants and children under 5 years of age: protocol for an overview of systematic reviews

Patients

 • Infants and children aged < 5 years

Intervention

 • Massage therapy

Comparators

 • Waitlist control

 • Placebo

 • Positive controls

 • Pharmacological treatments

 • Combinations of treatments

 • Usual care

 • Standard care

Outcomes

 • Children

  ▪ Physical outcomes (e.g. pain assessment, pulse rate, length of hospital admission, readmission)

  ▪ Psychosocial outcomes (e.g. anxiety, depression, insomnia, fears, behavioural regression)

  ▪ Developmental outcomes (e.g. weight gain, intelligence, ability of learning knowledge)

 • Caregivers

  ▪ Physical outcomes (e.g. blood pressure)

  ▪ Psychological outcomes (e.g. economic pressure, anxiety, depression)

 • Safety of interventions

  ▪ All adverse events (e.g. an increase in anxiety after receiving an intervention, high drop-out rate)

Timing

 • Studies of any duration

Setting

 • Studies of any setting

Study design

 • Systematic reviews with randomised controlled trials