| Methods |
Design: three group parallel trial
Purpose: examine the effect of allergen avoidance for asthma among inner‐city children |
| Participants |
Patients: Children (5 to 16 years) with asthma
Baseline comparability: yes |
| Interventions |
Placebo: mattresses permeable for allergens, ineffective roach traps
Untreated: no mattresses
Experimental: mattresses impermeable for allergens and effective roach bait
(Co‐intervention: NS) |
| Outcomes |
Number of acute visits for asthma (hospitalisation, emergency department visits, unscheduled clinical visits)
Allergen level (dust mite, cockroach, cat)
Sensitization to common allergens |
| Notes |
Outcome not reported so that meta‐analysis is possible |
| Risk of bias |
| Bias |
Authors' judgement |
Support for judgement |
| Adequate sequence generation? |
Unclear risk |
NS |
| Allocation concealment? |
Unclear risk |
NS |
| Blinding?
Treatment provider |
Unclear risk |
NS |
| Blinding?
Outcome assessor |
Unclear risk |
Not relevant as patient reported outcome |
| Incomplete outcome data addressed?
All outcomes |
High risk |
Drop‐out > 15% or NS |
| Free of selective reporting? |
High risk |
Outcome not reported so that meta‐analysis is possible |
| Free of other bias? |
Low risk |
|
| Trial size > 49? |
Low risk |
N = 55 |
| Clearly concealed allocation + trial size > 49 + drop‐out max 15% |
High risk |
Drop‐out > 15% or NS |
