| Methods |
Randomised placebo‐controlled trial of participants' culture‐negative for GABHS |
| Participants |
186 adults (aged 18 to 50) presenting to an ambulatory setting, whose chief complaint was sore throat and whose GABHS culture was subsequently found to be negative |
| Interventions |
Treatment with either erythromycin (333 mg, 3 times daily) or placebo |
| Outcomes |
Main outcomes ‐ time to improvement in sore throat, cough, activity level and sense of well‐being. Participants completed a daily questionnaire on the progress of outcome measures. Follow‐up visits were arranged 2 to 3 weeks after enrolment to repeat cultures, collect diaries and assess compliance |
| Notes |
It is not clear how many participants kept diaries for the sore throat data in each group. Authors excluded GABHS‐positive patients (15 out of 212 initially randomised) |
| Risk of bias |
| Bias |
Authors' judgement |
Support for judgement |
| Random sequence generation (selection bias) |
Low risk |
|
| Allocation concealment (selection bias) |
Low risk |
|
| Blinding (performance bias and detection bias)
All outcomes |
Low risk |
|
| Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias)
All outcomes |
Unclear risk |
It is not clear how many participants kept diaries for the sore throat data in each group. Authors excluded GABHS‐positive participants (15 out of 212 initially randomised) |
