Goodner 1979

Methods	Type of study: RCT (abstract) Method of treatment allocation: not described Stratification: not described Placebo: yes, saline Sample size calculation: not stated Intention‐to‐treat analyses: not stated Losses to follow‐up: not stated Funding: not stated
Participants	Location: Temple University Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Timeframe: July 1976‐July 1978 Eligibility criteria: any pregnant woman expected to deliver prior to 34 weeks' gestation between July 1976 and July 1978 at Department of Obs & Gyne at Temple University Hospital Gestational age range: prior to 34 weeks Exclusion criteria: not stated Total recruited: 45 placebo, 47 steroids
Interventions	Treatment group received an IM injection of betamethasone. The control group received an IM injection of saline as placebo.
Outcomes	Neonatal mortality, RDS
Notes
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Not stated other than "randomized"
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Not stated
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Likely that participants were blinded and possible that study personnel were blinded due to the use of placebo
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Blinding of outcome assessor not stated
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Not stated
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	High risk	RDS is the only outcome reported.
Other bias	Unclear risk	Only available as an abstract ‐ does not appear to have been published