| Methods |
RCT. Allocation by investigators not connected with study. Investigators, parents and assessors blind to allocation |
| Participants |
110 children aged 17‐19 months with IDA (Hb 8‐11 g/dL). Community sample |
| Interventions |
Ferrous sulphate 24 mg and vitamin C 10 g or vitamin C 10 mg as identical appearing placebo. Compliance checked twice weekly |
| Outcomes |
Denver Developmental Screening Tests before and 8‐9 weeks after commencement of treatment. Also measured weight change and measures of iron status |
| Notes |
‐ |
| Risk of bias |
| Bias |
Authors' judgement |
Support for judgement |
| Random sequence generation (selection bias) |
Unclear risk |
Comment: no sufficient information provided |
| Allocation concealment (selection bias) |
Low risk |
Quote (from report): "Allocation was double blind using consecutively numbered bottles" |
| Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias)
All outcomes |
Low risk |
Quote (from correspondence): "Investigators, parents and assessors were blind to allocation" |
| Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias)
All outcomes |
Low risk |
Quote (from correspondence): "Investigators, parents and assessors were blind to allocation" |
| Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias)
All outcomes |
Low risk |
6/54 missing from intervention group; 7/56 missing from control group. Characteristics of these 2 groups were similar to each other and to the group who reattended |
| Selective reporting (reporting bias) |
Low risk |
All expected outcomes were reported |
