Jiang 1998.

Methods	Random allocation Sample size at entry ‐ 132 MTX ‐ 90 Placebo (NSAIDs) ‐ 42 Duration ‐ 12 weeks
Participants	Patients with active RA Mean age ‐ Females ‐ Duration of disease ‐ unknown Positive rheumatoid factor ‐ Concomitant steriod use ‐ No concomitant DMARD use Previous DMARD use ‐
Interventions	MTX ‐ 7.5mg‐15mg NSAIDs
Outcomes	Joint tenderness count Joint tenderness score Joint swelling count Joint swelling score Hand grip strength ESR CRP
Notes	Funding source was not reported
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Patients were randomly allocated, but no description on the methods used was provided
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Methods for allocation concealment not reported
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Double‐blinding design was employed in the study
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	High risk	Withdrawal rates were not provided. Unclear if analyses were performed on an intention‐to‐treat population or completers
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	High risk	Adverse event rates for the placebo arm were not provided
Other bias	Low risk	Randomization was done to avoid baseline imbalance