Garg 2002

Methods	RCT Length of follow‐up: 6 months
Participants	All children living in endemic area Number analysed for primary outcome: 347 Age range: 2 to 4 years Inclusion criteria: sick children 2 to 4 years old presenting to 3 government health centres in Bungamo district, without palmar pallor Exclusion criteria: children with palmar pallor
Interventions	Single dose vs placebo Mebendazole: 500 mg (Vermox, Janssen, Belgium); Placebo: sucrose starch capsule.
Outcomes	Mean weight post‐treatment; Mean change in weight post‐treatment; Mean height post‐treatment; Mean change in height post‐treatment; Mean haemoglobin post‐treatment; Mean change in haemoglobin post‐treatment. Not included in review: z‐scores for weight‐for‐age, height‐for‐age, and weight‐for‐height; egg count (formol‐ethyl acetate concentration method) in categories of intensity.
Notes	Location: Kenya Community category: 3 Source of funding: the CDC, Atlanta, USA.
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Low risk	Computer‐generated list of random numbers.
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Low risk	Drugs kept in envelope until after baseline assessment.
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) All outcomes	High risk	"the trial was not double‐blinded". Assessors were blinded; participants unclear; provider not blinded.
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	93% (347/370) of randomized participants were evaluated, loss to follow‐up balanced across groups. Inclusion of all randomized participants (number evaluable/number randomized): 93% (347/370).
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	All stated outcomes included.
Other bias	Low risk	No obvious other source of bias.