Awasthi 2000

Methods	Quasi‐RCT Length of follow‐up: 2 years
Participants	All children living in endemic area Number analysed for primary outcome: 1045 Age range: 1.5 to 3.5 years Inclusion criteria: children living in 32 randomly selected urban slums; registered with an Anganwadi worker (health worker); between 1.5 to 3.5 years of age Exclusion criteria: none stated
Interventions	Multiple doses vs placebo Albendazole powder: 600 mg every 6 months for 2 years; Placebo: calcium powder
Outcomes	Mean weight post‐treatment; Mean change in weight post‐treatment; Mean height post‐treatment; Mean change in height post‐treatment; Developmental status (Denver Questionnaire): reported as proportion with normal development; Haemoglobin. Not included in review: prevalence of underweight and stunting over 2 years as defined by z‐scores, haemoglobin (visual colour estimation), stool examination (non‐concentration method), incidence of illness, and death
Notes	Location: Lucknow, India Community category: 3 Source of funding: International Clinical Epidemiology Network (INCLEN), Philadelphia, USA grant #2002‐94‐623 under the Clinical Economics Small Grants Program.
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	High risk	32 Anganwadi centres randomly selected, and then children allocated to a serial number; those with odd or non‐zero ending numbers were assigned to placebo.
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	High risk	Not concealed.
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Single blind.
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	9/610 children in the albendazole group and 7/451 in the placebo group were lost to follow‐up. Inclusion of all randomized participants (number evaluable/number randomized): 98% (1045/1061).
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	All stated outcomes reported.
Other bias	Low risk	No other obvious source of bias.