Table 1.

The checklist used for assessment of methodology reporting in this study, modified from the CONSORT for Abstracts guidelines

Items/Supplementary itemsa	Criteria/Contentb
1. Design	Explicit description of the trial design (e.g. parallel, cluster, crossover)
2. Participants	Eligibility criteria for participants
3. Setting	Settings where the data were collected
4. Interventions	Interventions intended for each group
5. Outcome	Clearly defined primary/main outcome(s) for the trial
5a. Time point	When was the primary/main outcome(s) assessed
5b. No. of outcomes c	The number of described primary/main outcome(s)
6. Random assignment	Clear statement that participants were allocated to groups in a randomised manner
6a. Unit of randomisation	Description of the unit of randomisation (e.g. patients, schools, communities)
7. Sequence generation	Method used for random sequence generation
8. Allocation concealment	Method used for allocation concealment
9. Blinding (Masking)	Whether or not participants, caregivers, and those assessing the outcomes were blinded to group assignment
9a. Generic blinding	Generic description only (e.g. single-blind, double-blind)

CONSORT for Abstracts: the CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) extension guidelines for reporting of RCT abstracts [23]

^aOnly the scores of main quality items (no.1 to 9) contributed to the primary outcome (overall quality score, range: 0 to 9); supplementary items (5a, 5b, 6a, 9a) were documented for information purposes only

^bDetailed scoring criteria are available in the online Appendix

^cA continuous variable, not dichotomous