5. Enhanced patient referral versus simple patient referral, number of partners elicited per index patient randomised, effect size.

Comparison	N (studies)	n (participants)	Study ID	MD (95% CI)	Test for heterogeneity I2; Chi2, P value
Home sampling kit vs. simple patient referral	3	516	Cameron 2009; Andersen 1998; Apoola 2009	0.00 (‐0.19 to 0.19)	0%; 0.32, P value = 0.85
Additional counselling vs. simple patient referral	3	2401	Cleveland undated; Ellison undated; Moyo 2002	0.1 (0.00 to 0.19)	0%; 1.17, P value = 0.56
Patient referral (DIS) vs. patient referral (nurse)	2	597	Katz 1988; Low 2005	‐0.40 (‐0.57 to ‐0.24)	0%; 0.03, P value = 0.87
Information booklet vs. simple patient referral	1	633	Kissinger 2005	0.0 (‐0.22 to 0.22)	n/a
Disease‐specific website vs. simple patient referral	2	140	Kerani 2011; Tomnay 2006	‐0.15 (‐0.72 to 0.42)	13%; 1.15, P value = 0.28

Enhanced patient referral is taken as the experimental group. Mean difference (MD) < 0 indicates that simple patient referral resulted in more partners elicited; MD = 0 indicates no difference between groups; MD > 0 indicates more partners elicited in the enhanced patient referral group.

CI: confidence interval; MD: mean difference; n/a indicates not applicable.