Journal of clinical epidemiology
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Review Meta Analysis
A systematic review finds that methodological quality is better than its reputation but can be improved in physiotherapy trials in childhood cerebral palsy.
To identify critical issues in performing randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on complex interventions such as physiotherapy in multifaceted disabilities like cerebral palsy (CP); to systematically assess how well trials handled patient characteristics, key components of complex interventions, and outcome assessments; to make suggestions for improving the effectiveness of physiotherapy research. ⋯ We found good to fair methodological quality in a considerable number of RCTs on physiotherapy in CP children. Nevertheless, improvement is indicated for certain areas in design and performance of future studies. This review shows that informative RCTs on complex interventions for multifaceted disabilities are feasible.
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To evaluate the methodological robustness of patient-reported outcomes (PROs) evaluation in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in oncology. ⋯ To facilitate the interpretation of results from such CAM RCTs, investigators are encouraged to pay greater attention to key methodological issues as identified in this study.