Avoidable waste of research related to inadequate methods in clinical trials.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To assess the waste of research related to inadequate methods in trials included in Cochrane reviews and to examine to what extent this waste could be avoided. A secondary objective was to perform a simulation study to re-estimate this avoidable waste if all trials were adequately reported.

Design

Methodological review and simulation study.

Data sources

Trials included in the meta-analysis of the primary outcome of Cochrane reviews published between April 2012 and March 2013.

Data extraction and synthesis

We collected the risk of bias assessment made by the review authors for each trial. For a random sample of 200 trials with at least one domain at high risk of bias, we re-assessed risk of bias and identified all related methodological problems. For e

SUBMITTER: Yordanov Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4372296 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature