Fig. 2

General summary plots. The number of pooled studies together with involved patients in two arms as well as ORs for all-cause mortality overall and by different FI definitions is summarized. Each node (solid circle) together with the number in it stands for the number of patients with FI (filled with orange) or non-FI (filled with blue) under a certain definition or overall situation with definition indiscriminately. The size of nodes is logarithmically proportional to the number of patients (i.e., the sample size in the FI or non-FI arm) involving the specific classification situation. The color of the arrows stands for different mean NOS score levels and the number right to the arrows as well as arrow thickness stands for the number of independent cohorts involving data pooling. The number string left to the arrows stands for pooled OR and its 95% CI when FI versus non-FI. *The number of cohorts exceeds the total number of included studies because some studies provided one more different FI definitions-based independent cohorts of eligible data for pooling. FI feeding intolerance, EF enteral feeding, GRV gastric residual volume, GIS gastrointestinal symptoms, NOS Newcastle–Ottawa Scale, No. number, OR odds ratio, CI confidence interval