Feldman 2016.
| Study characteristics | ||
| Methods | Prospective cluster‐RCT. Ships from a single, central naval base. Ships were stratified by vessel classes (corvette, fast missile boat, and patrol boat). | |
| Participants | All people participating in security operations, routine exercises, and patrol at a single, central naval base were eligible. The actual number of participants in the groups is not reported. |
|
| Interventions | Chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) dispensers in addition to soap‐and‐water hand‐washing versus soap‐and‐water hand‐washing. See Table 4 for details. | |
| Outcomes | Laboratory: bacterial palm cultures from 30 sailors from each group using a modified bag broth technique with sterile brain‐heart broth, at 0 and 4 months (sample participants) Effectiveness: Primary outcome: incidence of infectious diseases reported by the computerised patient records system using ICD‐9 diagnoses and grouped into diarrhoeal, respiratory, and skin infections; the number of sick call visits; and the number of sick leave and light‐duty days incurred by the sailors Secondary outcome: subclinical morbidity (i.e. symptoms of self‐reported infectious diseases) Safety: not reported |
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| Notes | No report on adherence Funding: governmental (Israeli Defense Force Medical Corps) Study was conducted between May and September 2014 (4 months follow‐up). CHG availability onboard the ships did not reduce the transmission of infectious diseases or colonisation. |
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| Risk of bias | ||
| Bias | Authors' judgement | Support for judgement |
| Random sequence generation (selection bias) | Unclear risk | No description of randomisation |
| Allocation concealment (selection bias) | Unclear risk | No description of allocation |
| Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes | High risk | Unblinded. Self‐reported outcomes |
| Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes | Unclear risk | No information if personnel collecting data for ICD‐9 diagnosis were blinded |
| Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes | Unclear risk | No participants flow chart, no attrition data |
| Selective reporting (reporting bias) | Unclear risk | No protocol to compare |