Quality assessment of included studies
| Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool (for randomised controlled trials (RCTs)) | |||||||||
| Study | Random sequence generation (selection bias) | Allocation concealment (selection bias) | Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) | Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) | Incomplete outcome data addressed (attrition bias) | Selective reporting (reporting bias) | Other bias | ||
| Andersen et al, 199848 | High* | Unclear† | High‡ | Unclear§ | High¶ | Unclear** | High†† | ||
| Cook et al, 200743 | Low | Low | High‡ | Low | Unclear‡‡ | Low | Unclear**** | ||
| Ostergaard et al, 199850 | Unclear§§ | Unclear† | High‡ | Unclear§ | High¶ | Unclear** | Low | ||
| Ostergaard et al, 200349 | Unclear§§ | Low | High‡ | Unclear§ | High¶ | Unclear** | High†† | ||
| Xu et al, 201151 | Low | Low | High‡ | Unclear§ | High¶ | Low | Unclear¶¶ | ||
| Evidence Project Risk of Bias Tool (for non-RCTs) | |||||||||
| Study | Study design includes preintervention and postintervention data | Study design includes control or comparison group | Study design includes cohort | Comparison groups equivalent at baseline on sociodemographics | Comparison groups equivalent at baseline on outcome measures | Random assignment (group or Individual level) to the intervention | Participants randomly selected for assessment | Control for potential confounders | Follow-up rate >80% |
| Barbee et al, 201641 | Yes | No | No | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable | No | Unclear*** | Not applicable |
| Bradshaw et al, 200542 | Yes | No | No | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable | No | Unclear*** | Not applicable |
| Gaydos et al, 201144 | No | Yes | No | No | Unclear††† | No | No | Unclear*** | Not applicable |
| Habel et al, 201845 | Yes | No | No | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable | No | Unclear‡‡‡ | Not applicable |
| Holland-Hall et al, 200246 | No | Yes | No | Not reported | Unclear††† | No | No | Unclear§§§ | Not applicable |
| Knight et al, 201347 | Yes | No | No | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable | No | Unclear¶¶¶ | Not applicable |
*Participants randomly divided into intervention and control ‘according to date of birth’.
†No details on allocation concealment reported.
‡No blinding, and the outcomes are likely to be influenced by lack of blinding.
§No blinding, but no subjective outcomes were reported, and unknown if laboratory personnel or testing assessors were blinded.
¶Over 20% of participants were not tested, and the missing data were not balanced in the intervention and control groups.
**Study protocol not available from trial registries.
††Participants were sexual partners of CT-positive patients.
‡‡Number of completed tests at 6, 12 and 18 months not clearly reported; 58% and 56% missing data from the intervention and control group, respectively.
§§Details on random sequence generation method not reported.
¶¶STI management strategy included reminders; study aim was to evaluate retesting of CT-positive patients.
***Confounders not mentioned.
†††STI testing uptake history at baseline (at preintervention time point or in comparison group) not reported.
‡‡‡Stratified analysis by gender only; other confounders not mentioned.
§§§Sexual experience mentioned but not controlled for; other confounders not mentioned.
¶¶¶Stratified analysis by clinic type only; other confounders not mentioned.
****Both intervention and the control groups had access to usual care if symptomatic.