| Methods |
Double‐blinded RCT |
| Participants |
91 people (age 8 years or older) with cough and sputum for up to 2 weeks, and no signs of sinusitis, otitis, or pneumonia and no localised abnormal lung exam. All tested for Mycoplasma (one‐half with negative serology excluded). |
| Interventions |
Erythromycin (250 mg 4 times a day for 10 days) versus identical‐looking placebo. Participants kept daily logs and returned for follow‐up visit at days 14 to 18. |
| Outcomes |
Cough, chest congestion, use of cough medication, general well‐being, sleep, and normal activities |
| Notes |
No mention of eligible patients who refused to volunteer |
| 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 |
|
| Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) |
Low risk |
|
| Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias)
All outcomes |
Unclear risk |
Not reported |
| Selective reporting (reporting bias) |
Unclear risk |
Not reported |
| Other bias |
High risk |
|
