Applications, indications, and effects of passive hydrotherapy WATSU (WaterShiatsu)—A systematic review and meta-analysis
Fig 3
Forest plot of random model meta-analysis for effects of WATSU on physical function.
Subgroup analyses by design (non-RCTs versus RCTs), table depicting number of participants in intervention group (receiving WATSU, nW), number of participants in control group (nC), total number of participants in these groups, Hedges’s g, standard error, variance, CI, Z-value, and p-value. Chun et al., 2006, reported on three participants in a cross design with three interventions. To avoid artificially increased precision, only a comparison between WATSU and the control-intervention with the larger beneficial effect size is presented in the forest plot. Outcome data of several measurements presented in the studies of Chon et al., 2009, Chun et al., 2006, and Gimenez & Castro, 2018, were each pooled for further processing. The data of the control group in the 2005 study by Faull was not considered because of baseline-differences in outcome, data of the control group in the 2015 study by Schitter et al. was not reported for this outcome.