Chang 1998

Methods	Randomised controlled trial Study location: single centre in China Study period: March 1996 to March 1998
Participants	45 preterm infants with BW ≤ 1800 grams and GA ≤ 35 weeks, age 1 day
Interventions	15 infants in group 1 received EPO (Kirin Brewery, Co., Ltd., Japan) 150 IU/kg (450 IU/kg/week, low dose) SC 3 times a week for 6 weeks. 15 infants in group 2 received EPO 250 IU/kg (750 IU/kg/week, high dose) SC 3 times a week for 6 weeks. 15 infants in group 3 did not receive any treatment. All infants received oral iron 20 mg (high dose) from day 7 after birth.
Outcomes	Use of 1 or more red blood cell transfusions Sepsis Neutropenia Hypertension Side effects
Notes	It is not stated whether infants who had received blood transfusions before study entry were included. It is not stated whether transfusion guidelines were in place.
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Unclear
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Allocation concealment unclear
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	High risk	No placebo was given. Personnel were aware of group assignments
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	High risk	No placebo was given. Outcome assessors were aware of group assignments.
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Complete follow‐up: yes
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Unclear risk	The protocol for the study was not available to us; therefore we cannot ascertain whether deviations from the protocol occurred.
Other bias	Low risk	Appears free of other bias