Misleading reporting and interpretation of results in major infertility journals

Fertility and Sterility
Demian GlujovskyA Ciapponi

Abstract

To evaluate the proportion of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published in top infertility journals indexed on PubMed that reported their results with proper effect estimates and their precision estimation, while correctly interpreting both measures. Cross-sectional study evaluating all the RCTs published in top infertility journals during 2014. Not applicable. Not applicable. Not applicable. Proportion of RCTs that reported both relative and absolute effect size measures and its precision. Among the 32 RCTs published in 2014 in the top infertility journals reviewed, 37.5% (95% confidence interval [CI], 21.1-56.3) did not mention in their abstracts whether the difference among the study arms was statistically or clinically significant, and only 6.3% (95% CI, 0.8-20.8) used a CI of the absolute difference. Similarly, in the results section, these elements were observed in 28.2% (95% CI, 13.7-46.7) and 15.6% (95% CI, 5.3-32.8), respectively. Only one study clearly expressed the minimal clinically important difference in their methods section, but we found related proxies in 53% (95% CI, 34.7-70.9). None of the studies used CIs to draw conclusions about the clinical or statistical significance. We found 13 studies where the in...Continue Reading

References

Jan 9, 2009·Trials·Peter C Gøtzsche
Mar 25, 2010·BMJ : British Medical Journal·David MoherDouglas G Altman
Mar 30, 2010·Journal of Clinical Epidemiology·David MoherUNKNOWN Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials Group
May 1, 2010·Journal of Clinical Epidemiology·L ReveizUNKNOWN Iberoamerican Cochrane Network
Mar 25, 2011·International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care·Marjukka MäkeläKen Stein
Sep 21, 2011·Journal of the National Cancer Institute·Angela FagerlinPeter A Ubel
Jun 20, 2012·BMJ : British Medical Journal·Haroon AhmedAdrian G K Edwards
Sep 18, 2012·Fertility and Sterility·Demián GlujovskyAgustín Ciapponi
Aug 19, 2014·Annals of Internal Medicine·Daniella A ZipkinDavid A Feldstein
Sep 6, 2014·The International Journal of Prosthodontics·Dimitrios KloukosNikolaos Pandis
Sep 17, 2014·Fertility and Sterility·UNKNOWN Harbin Consensus Conference Workshop Group
Dec 3, 2014·Fertility and Sterility·Demian GlujovskyAgustín Ciapponi
Oct 28, 2015·CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association Journal = Journal De L'Association Medicale Canadienne·Bradley C JohnstonGordon H Guyatt

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Citations

Feb 2, 2016·Fertility and Sterility·Robert A Wild
Sep 17, 2020·Annual Review of Vision Science·David J Mathew, Yvonne M Buys
Dec 24, 2019·Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics·Demian GlujovskyAgustín Ciapponi

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