Effects of Late Evening Snack on Cirrhotic Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Table 1

Characteristics of the studies included in this meta-analysis.

Study	Year	Country	Design	Sample size	Duration	Age (years)^♦	Child–Pugh scores	Intervention
Fei et al. [11]	2017	China	RCT	70	4 weeks	54.8 ± 0.69	B and C	150–200 ml herbal cuisine
Yamanaka-Okumura et al. [12]	2010	Japan	RCT	39	12 months	—	A	A high-carbohydrate LES (e.g., a rice ball, a rice cake, and a sweet potato) (200 kcal)
Liu et al. [13]	2012	China	RCT	40	20 days	26–66	C	30 g branched-chain amino acid
Chen et al. [14]	2014	China	RCT	40	6 weeks	49.4 ± 12.7	20 A, 14 B, and 6 C	200 g yogurt and 15 g protein compounds (200 kcal)
Xu et al. [15]	2015	China	RCT	116	4 weeks	—	B and C	200 ml milk
Yamanaka-Okumura et al. [16]	2006	Japan	Case-control study	47	1 week	—	A	Rice ball (200 kcal)
Chang et al. [17]	1997	China	Case-control study	24	—	50 ± 3	A, B, and C	50 g carbohydrate (two slices of bread)
Miwa et al. [18]	2000	Japan	Case-control study	26	1 week	63 ± 2	A, B, and C	250 ml liquid nutrient (250 kcal)
Yu et al. [19]	2012	China	Case-control study	60	2 weeks	42.59 ± 9.67	20 A, 20 B, and 20 C	Carbohydrate (bread)
Dong et al. [20]	2016	China	Pre–post study	105	12 weeks	50.83 ± 8.52	63 A, 33 B, and 9 C	50 g lotus root starch (836.4 KJ)
Keiko et al. [21]	2008	Japan	Pre–post study	11	12 weeks	44–78	3 A, 7 B, and 1 C	Branched-chain amino acid-enriched nutrient mixture
Koji et al. [22]	2007	Japan	Pre–post study	55	3 months	48–85	26 A, 26 B, and 3 C	Branched-chain amino acid-enriched nutrient mixture (210 kcal)
Nagao and Sata [23]	2013	Japan	Pre–post study	4	12 weeks	67.3 ± 5.7	A and B	Amazake (200 kcal)
El-Bassat et al. [24]	2014	Egypt	Case-control study	30	15 days	—	B and C	15 g protein-containing snack; (300 kcal)

^♦Mean age or the range of age.