Handling missing outcomes in time-to-event analyses in randomised controlled trials: a scoping review with a focus on multiple imputation.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) are the gold standard for evaluating treatment effects. However, missing outcomes can threaten the validity of the results. Missing data pose a unique challenge in time-to-event analyses, where the event time may be censored rather than completely missing. Proper handling of missing event times is crucial to ensure unbiased and reliable conclusions in RCTs. This scoping review examines how missing outcomes in time-to-event studies have been addressed in high-impact medical journals and evaluates the implementation and reporting of multiple imputation (MI) techniques in RCTs.

Method

This scoping review assessed methods for handling missing time-to-event outcomes in RCTs published between 2019 and 2024 in three high-impact medical

SUBMITTER: Karuppasamy S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12482435 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature