Abstracts in high profile journals often fail to report harm.

ABSTRACT:

Background

To describe how frequently harm is reported in the abstract of high impact factor medical journals.

Methods

Design and population

We carried out a blinded structured review of a random sample of 363 Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) carried out on human beings, and published in high impact factor medical journals in 2003. Main endpoint: 1) Proportion of articles reporting harm in the abstract; and 2) Proportion of articles that reported harm in the abstract when harm was reported in the main body of the article.

Analysis

Corrected Prevalence Ratio (cPR) and its exact confidence interval were calculated. Non-conditional logistic regression was used.

Results

363 articles and 407 possible comparisons were studied. Overall, harm was reported in

SUBMITTER: Bernal-Delgado E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2329663 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature