This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Correction  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

The Standards of Reporting Trials Group; Erik Andrew, PhD; Aslam Anis, PhD; Tom Chalmers, MD; Mildred Cho, PhD; Mike Clarke, PhD; David Felson, MD; Peter Gøtzsche, MD; Richard Greene, MD, PhD; Alejandro Jadad, MD; Wayne Jonas, MD; Terry Klassen, MD; Paul Knipschild, MD; Andreas Laupacis, MD, MSc; Curtis L. Meinert, PhD; David Moher, MSc; Graham Nichol, MD; Andy Oxman, MD; Marie-France Penman, BScN; Stuart Pocock, PhD; Joan Reisch, PhD; David Sackett, MD; Kenneth Schulz, PhD, MBA; Judy Snider; Peter Tugwell, MD; Jon Tyson, MD; France Varin, PhD; Wikke Walop, PhD; Sharon Walsh, MD; George Wells, PhD

JAMA. 1994;272(24):1926-1931.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

A RANDOMIZED controlled trial (RCT) is the most reliable method of assessing the efficacy of health care interventions.^1,2 Reports of RCTs should provide readers with adequate information about what went on in the design, execution, analysis, and interpretation of the trial. Such reports will help readers judge the validity of the trial.

There have been several investigations evaluating how RCTs are reported. In an early study, Mahon and Daniel³ reviewed 203 reports of drug trials published between 1956 and 1960 in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Only 11 reports (5.4%) fulfilled their criteria of a valid report. In a review of 45 trials published during 1985 in three leading general medical journals, Pocock and colleagues⁴ reported that a statement about sample size was only mentioned in five (11.1%) of the reports, that only six (13.3%) made use of confidence intervals, and that the statistical analyses tended to . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
Nycomed Imaging, Oslo, Norway; Clinical Epidemiology Unit, Ottawa (Ontario) Civic Hospital; New England Medical Center for Health Services Research and Study Design, Boston, Mass; Institute for Health Policy Studies, University of California, San Francisco; Clinical Trial Service Unit, Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, England; (member of writing committee), Boston (Mass) University School of Medicine; (member of writing committee), The Nordic Cochrane Centre, Research and Development Secretariat, Copenhagen, Denmark; Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, Rockville, Md; Oxford Regional Pain Relief Unit, Headington, Oxford, England; Medical Research Fellowship, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington, DC; Division of Emergency Medicine, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Ottawa; Ryksuniversiteit Limburg, Vakgoep Epidemiologie, Limburg, the Netherlands; (member of writing committee), Clinical Epidemiology Unit, Ottawa (Ontario) Civic Hospital; Department of Epidemiology, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md; (chair and member of writing committee), Clinical Epidemiology Unit, Ottawa (Ontario); Civic Hospital; Clinical Epidemiology Unit, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Mass; Department of Health Services, National Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway; Multiple Sclerosis Clinic, Ottawa (Ontario) General Hospital; (member of writing committee), Medical Statistics Unit, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London, (England); Department of Pediatrics and Medical Computer Science, University of Texas Health Science Center, Dallas; (member of writing committee), Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford (England); Division of STD/HIV Prevention, National Center for Prevention Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Ga; Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine, University of Ottawa (Ontario); Department of Medicine, University of Ottawa (Ontario); Department of Pediatrics, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas; Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Montreal (Quebec); Biometrics Division, Drugs Directorie, Health Canada, Ottawa, Ontario; Department of Medicine, Ottawa (Ontario) Civic Hospital; (member of writing committee), Clinical Epidemiology Unit, Ottawa (Ontario) Civic Hospital.

Footnotes
A complete list of the Standards of Reporting Trials Group appears at the end of the article.

Reprint requests to the Clinical Epidemiology Unit, Loeb Medical Research Institute, Ottawa Civic Hospital, 1053 Carling Ave, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1Y 4E9 (Mr Moher).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?