Freij 1979a

Methods	Quasi‐RCT Length of follow‐up: 28 days
Participants	Infected children identified by screening Number analysed for primary outcome: 13 Age range: 1.5 to 5 years Inclusion criteria: boys attending mother and child clinic with Ascaris on stool smear; aged 1.5 to 5 years with no history of diarrhoea for preceding 2 weeks; no fever; no respiratory symptoms; no signs of severe disease Exclusion criteria: children diagnosed with other parasites; excluded girls to eliminate the contamination of samples with urine
Interventions	Single dose vs placebo Piperazine: 3 g single dose; Placebo syrup: single dose.
Outcomes	Weight; MUAC; Triceps skinfold thickness. Not included in review: Ascaris worm count
Notes	Location: Ethiopia Community category: N/A The trial authors mention that boys were matched in pairs so that if there were drop outs they could be replaced. They do not indicate if there were any drop outs. SDs calculated from individual data. Freij 1979a and Freij 1979ai were reported in the same article. Source of funding: Semper Nutrition Fund, Stockholm; Swedish Medical Research Council.
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	High risk	Quasi‐RCT: boys matched into pairs of equal age and nutritional status.
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	No details reported.
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Described as double blind, no further details reported.
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	100% (13/13) of enrolled participants were evaluated. The authors mention that boys were matched in pairs so that if there were drop outs they could be replaced. They do not indicate if there were any drop outs. Inclusion of all randomized participants (number evaluable/number randomized): 100% (13/13).
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	Authors had intended to measure bicep and tricep skinfolds, but staff were unable to take these measurements.
Other bias	Low risk	No obvious other source of bias.