Reporting of flow diagrams in randomised controlled trials published in periodontology and implantology: a survey.

Meyer, Hanns-Gustav Julius; Pandis, Nikolaos; Seehra, Jadbinder; Faggion, Clovis Mariano (2023). Reporting of flow diagrams in randomised controlled trials published in periodontology and implantology: a survey. BMC Medical research methodology, 23(1), p. 105. BioMed Central 10.1186/s12874-023-01923-7

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BACKGROUND

Item 13 of the CONSORT guidelines recommends documentation of the participant flow in randomised clinical trials (RCTs) using a diagram. In the medical literature, the reporting of the flow of participants in RCTs has been assessed to be inadequate. The quality of reporting flow diagrams in periodontology and implantology remains unknown. The aim of this study was to assess the reporting of flow diagrams in RCTs published in periodontology and implantology journals.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

RCTs published between 15th January 2018 and 15th January 2022 in twelve high-ranked periodontology and implantology journals were identified. Trial characteristics at the RCT level were extracted. The flow diagram included in each RCT was assessed for completeness of reporting in relation to published criteria and the CONSORT flow diagram template.

RESULTS

From the 544 eligible articles, 85% were single-centre, 82% of parallel-group design and 79% investigated surgical interventions. Three-hundred and fifteen (58%) articles were published in CONSORT endorsing journals. A flow diagram was reported in 317 (58%) trials and reporting was more common in periodontology (73.1%). Overall, 56% of publications with a flow diagram reported a complete CONSORT flow diagram, while in 44% of flow diagrams, at least one point from the CONSORT reporting template was missing. Reasons for loss to follow-up (69.7%) and exclusions from the RCT analysis (86.4%) were poorly reported.

CONCLUSION

The reporting of flow diagrams in periodontology and implantology RCTs was sub-optimal. Greater awareness of the importance of fully completing the participant CONSORT flow diagram is required.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

04 Faculty of Medicine > School of Dental Medicine > Department of Orthodontics

UniBE Contributor:

Pandis, Nikolaos

Subjects:

600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health

ISSN:

1471-2288

Publisher:

BioMed Central

Language:

English

Submitter:

Pubmed Import

Date Deposited:

28 Apr 2023 10:51

Last Modified:

30 Apr 2023 02:22

Publisher DOI:

10.1186/s12874-023-01923-7

PubMed ID:

37106314

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Dental implants Evidence-based dentistry Methodological study Methods Periodontics Randomised controlled trials

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/182050

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/182050

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