Evaluation of Evidence of Statistical Support and Corroboration of Subgroup Claims in Randomized Clinical Trials.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Many published randomized clinical trials (RCTs) make claims for subgroup differences.

Objective

To evaluate how often subgroup claims reported in the abstracts of RCTs are actually supported by statistical evidence (P < .05 from an interaction test) and corroborated by subsequent RCTs and meta-analyses.

Data sources

This meta-epidemiological survey examines data sets of trials with at least 1 subgroup claim, including Subgroup Analysis of Trials Is Rarely Easy (SATIRE) articles and Discontinuation of Randomized Trials (DISCO) articles. We used Scopus (updated July 2016) to search for English-language articles citing each of the eligible index articles with at least 1 subgroup finding in the abstract.

Study selection

Articles with a subgroup claim in

SUBMITTER: Wallach JD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6657347 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature