Prevention & lipidsMeta-analysis
Microbiome-Targeted Interventions for Early Cardiometabolic Prevention: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis in Children and Adolescents
- Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised trials
- random-effects
- meta-regression
Authors' conclusion
The pattern of responses to microbiome-targeted interventions was consistent with greater effects on early biological components of paediatric cardiometabolic disease, including adiposity, hepatic dysfunction and systemic inflammation. Evidence for downstream cardiometabolic risk factor modification was limited.
Study context
- Population
- Children and adolescents aged 1 month-19 years21 of 28 studies meta-analysed
- Comparison
- Microbiome-targeted interventions vs placebo
- Outcome
- Cardiometabolic outcomes:
- Adiposity
- Lipids
- Liver function
- Inflammation
- Glycaemic regulation
- BP
Pooled result
As reported in the abstract
Hedges' g
- BMI z-score
- −0.36 (95% CI −0.64 to −0.08)
- C-reactive protein
- −0.68 (CI −1.27 to −0.09)
- alanine aminotransferase (borderline reduction)
- −0.33 (CI −0.66 to 0.00)
Further pooled results
Pre-specified cardiometabolic markers (multivariate analysis)
- Small overall reduction across pre-specified cardiometabolic markers
- g=−0.21, −0.33 to −0.10
- multivariate analysis
- Hedges' g, 95% CI
Original publication
Microbiome-Targeted Interventions for Early Cardiometabolic Prevention: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis in Children and Adolescents. Eur J Prev Cardiol. Published 23 September 2026. doi:10.1093/eurjpc/zwag500
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it