Albonico 2002.

Methods	Design: parallel group randomized trial Duration of study: September to October 2000 Duration of follow‐up: mean 21 days (range 20–23 days)
Participants	Country: United Republic of Tanzania Setting: school Number included in study: 1435 Age: 8–13 years (mean 9.4 years) Sex: 795 girls, 640 boys Inclusion criteria: 1st and 2nd grade school children from 7 primary public school randomly selected among 72 schools Exclusion criteria: significant comorbidities (e.g. severe diarrhoea, severe anaemia, high fever); and had received anthelmintic treatment in previous month Lost at follow‐up: 106 (7.4%) Number of participants positive for A lumbricoides: 310 Number of participants included in review: 210
Interventions	Treatment strategy: screening and treat all included participants Group 1: mebendazole 500 mg single dose (n = 107) Group 2: placebo (n = 103) Group 3: pyrantel‐oxantel single dose: bodyweight 15–20 kg: 150 mg; 21–30 kg: 300 mg; 31–40 kg: 450 mg (n = 103; not included)
Outcomes	Outcomes included:Ascaris cure rates, pre‐ and post‐treatment GM epg, ERR, adverse events Outcomes not included in review: efficacy of anthelmintic treatment for Trichuris; efficacy of pyrantel‐oxantel for Ascaris
Notes	Diagnostic technique: Kato‐Katz Funding support: Parasitic and Vector Control, Division of Communicable Diseases, World Health Organization Pharmamed (Malta) donated placebo and mebendazole, and Pfizer (Indonesia) donated pyrantel‐oxantel.
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Low risk	Quote: "Randomization was blocked on weight and a computer‐generated program was used to create 3 randomized treatment list."
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Low risk	Quote: "Treatments were placed in sealed, opaque envelopes and coded with a number."
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Quote: "Placebo pills resembled mebendazole in colour, size, taste, and shape."
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Quote: "All laboratory investigations were blinded, i.e. the technicians examining the slides were unaware of the treatment regimen of the patients."
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	106 (7.4%) participants lost at follow‐up and not included in analysis.
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	All stated outcomes were reported.
Other bias	Low risk	No other obvious source of bias.