Journal of clinical epidemiology
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We sought to evaluate the trends in the methodological quality of randomized controlled trials in various medical fields. ⋯ Certain aspects of methodological quality have improved significantly over time, but others remain stagnant. Further efforts to improve study design, conduct, and reporting of randomized controlled trials are warranted.
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New study design evaluated the validity of measures to assess change after hip or knee arthroplasty.
We propose a study design to evaluate the ability of measures to assess physical function relatively independent of pain. We illustrate the design using data from patients scheduled for total hip (THA) or knee (TKA) arthroplasty. ⋯ Our findings support the proposed design in that the PB was more sensitive to change than the self-report measures.