Figure 4

Possible causal diagram related to the four excluded studies analysing the relationship between chronic hepatitis B infection during pregnancy and gestational diabetes mellitus. CHB: chronic hepatitis B infection; GDM: gestational diabetes mellitus; Pop: population. The arrow represents a causal relationship between the two variables at both edges of the arrow. The variable that the arrow points to denotes the outcome of the variable at the other end of the arrow. The red arrow denotes the relationship under study. The blue arrow lines denote the other variables that could affect this relationship. The author names and publication years are associated with the variables as appropriate.