| Methods |
Open study |
| Participants |
121 young adult men, aged 18 to 21 years, recruited into United States Air Force. Participants were excluded from study if their temperature was below 99.3 degrees F, if they had sore throat for more than 72 hours prior to presentation, or if they had some other generalised illness |
| Interventions |
Intramuscular penicillin twice‐daily for 4 days or no treatment as a control condition |
| Outcomes |
Incidence of rheumatic fever and symptoms of sore throat and fever |
| Notes |
Aspirin gargles were given 6‐hourly. Whether participants were permitted to swallow the aspirin was not documented |
| Risk of bias |
| Bias |
Authors' judgement |
Support for judgement |
| Random sequence generation (selection bias) |
Unclear risk |
Participants randomised by hospital bed number |
| Allocation concealment (selection bias) |
High risk |
|
| Blinding (performance bias and detection bias)
All outcomes |
High risk |
|
| Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias)
All outcomes |
Low risk |
|
| Selective reporting (reporting bias) |
Low risk |
All relevant outcomes reported |
