Reporting and dealing with missing quality of life data in RCTs: has the picture changed in the last decade?

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

Missing data are a major problem in the analysis of data from randomised trials affecting power and potentially producing biased treatment effects. Specifically focussing on quality of life outcomes, we aimed to report the amount of missing data, whether imputation was used and what methods and was the missing mechanism discussed from four leading medical journals and compare the picture to our previous review nearly a decade ago.

Methods

A random selection (50 %) of all RCTS published during 2013-2014 in BMJ, JAMA, Lancet and NEJM was obtained. RCTs reported in research letters, cluster RCTs, non-randomised designs, review articles and meta-analysis were excluded.

Results

We included 87 RCTs in the review of which 35 % the amount of missing primary QoL data w

SUBMITTER: Fielding S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5102945 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature