| Methods |
Placebo‐controlled cross‐over trial |
| Participants |
6 participants (5 men and 1 woman), mean age 36 years (range 25 to 55 years) |
| Interventions |
660 mL caffeine‐free drink with 75 g sucrose or artificial sweetener 40 minutes before exercise or 330 mL caffeine free drink that contained 37 g sucrose 5 minutes before exercise |
| Outcomes |
Cycle ergometry, heart rate, Borg RPP |
| Notes |
|
| Risk of bias |
| Bias |
Authors' judgement |
Support for judgement |
| Random sequence generation (selection bias) |
Unclear risk |
The method of randomisation was not described |
| Allocation concealment (selection bias) |
Unclear risk |
The method of allocation concealment was not described |
| Blinding (performance bias and detection bias)
All outcomes |
High risk |
Participants were blinded but observers were not blinded. It is not clear whether the placebo had an identical taste to the treatment |
| Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias)
All outcomes |
Low risk |
No dropouts or missing data |
| Selective reporting (reporting bias) |
Unclear risk |
Individual data were not given, the only data were the pooled differences from baseline |
| Other bias |
Unclear risk |
The mean difference in heart rate was reported but the range of heart rate for each group was not reported |
