Golden 2005.

Methods	Setting: participants were interviewed at the Public Health‐Seattle and King County (PHSKC) STI clinic and one other PHSKC clinic in King County, Washington, US Enrolment: patients who received a diagnosis of gonorrhoea or genital chlamydial infection between 29 September 1998 and 7 March 2003 were identified through laboratory reporting, case reports from healthcare providers and onsite case ascertainment were identified. Clinicians who made diagnosis were contacted to seek permission and potential participants were contacted for an interview Follow‐up: interview of index patient 10‐18 weeks after treatment
Participants	2751 index patients, 646 men and 2105 women, with either gonorrhoea or chlamydia or both infections were randomised Inclusion criteria Women Heterosexual men Diagnosis of gonorrhoea or chlamydia Exclusion criteria Patients who could not be contacted 14 days after treatment Patients with partners already treated Men who had sex with men Non‐English speaking people Previously enrolled in the study Homeless or institutionalised Diagnosed in context of sexual assault Less than 14 years of age Unable to give informed consent Patients with partners who were jailed or institutionalised Patients with incomplete case reports Patients enrolled in another PN study
Interventions	Before randomisation, study personnel offered to contact partners who index patients were unable or unwilling to contact themselves Simple patient referral (n = 1376) Index patients were advised to tell their partners to seek care and that care was available at no cost at the STI clinic EPT (n = 1375) Index patients were offered medication to give to up to 3 partners, study staff members offered medication to partners they contacted themselves. Partner packages were distributed to patients or their partners through commercial pharmacies, the PHSKC STI Clinic or direct mailing. Packets also contained condoms, information on medication, warning for adverse effects, telephone contact for study staff and brochure. Pharmacies were contacted 1 week after medication prescribed to determine whether it was picked up ‐ if not picked up within 1 week patient received a telephone call reminder
Outcomes	Primary outcome Persistent or recurrent gonorrhoea or chlamydial infection in index patient (urine testing at 10‐ to 18‐week follow‐up interview) Secondary outcome Behavioural outcomes ‐ PN, sexual interaction with untreated partner (self report by index patient)
Notes	Ethical approval obtained from the institutional review board of the University of Washington and Group Health Cooperative
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	At enrolment, 2751 patients reported having untreated partners they could contact and underwent randomisation. No details given
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	No details given
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	High risk	Of 1375 assigned to the expedited treatment arm, 929 (68%) completed study. Of 1376 assigned to partner referral arm, 931 (68%) completed study. Only participants completing the study were included in the analysis
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Unclear risk	Persistent or recurrent gonorrhoea or chlamydia were the primary outcome stated in the methods section. Behavioural outcomes were reported in the outcome section. Adverse events were not reported and unclear whether no adverse events were reported or whether authors failed to record them. Protocol was not available from 3 trial registries
Other bias	Unclear risk	Selective reporting of subgroups, this might have been a potential bias but there is insufficient information to assess whether an important risk of bias exist
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	High risk	Participant and personnel not blinded
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	Low risk	No blinding. Urine test use LCx (Abbott) ligase chain reaction used for primary outcome ‐ objective. Self report on behavioural outcome ‐ subjective