The completeness of intervention descriptions in published NIHR HTA funded trials: a cross sectional study
The completeness of intervention descriptions in published NIHR HTA funded trials: a cross sectional study
Objectives: the objective of this study is to assess whether NIHR HTA funded randomised controlled trials (RCTs) published in Health Technology Assessment journal were described in sufficient detail to replicate in practice.
Methods: a checklist for assessing intervention descriptions was applied to NIHR HTA funded RCTs published in Health Technology Assessment. The checklist was piloted twice on a sample of 10 reports. Kappa scores were generated to assess agreement in the checklist application. The checklist was modified and applied to all 98 NIHR HTA funded single trial RCTs published in the journal from January 1999 - March 2011. Three assessors independently applied the checklist. Disagreements in scoring were discussed in the team; differences were then explored and resolved.
Results: components of the intervention description were missing in 68 / 98 (69.4%) reports. Baseline characteristics and descriptions of settings had the highest levels of completeness with over 90% of reports complete. Reports were less complete on patient information with 58.2% of the monographs having an adequate description. Intervention descriptions were more complete for drug interventions than non-drug interventions with 33.3% and 30.6% levels of completeness respectively. Only 27.3% of RCTs with psychological interventions were deemed to be complete, although numbers were too small for differences to be significant statistically.
Conclusions: ensuring the replicability of a study intervention is an essential part of adding value in research. Research funders need to ensure transparency in the reporting of interventions, methods and findings and their responses to identified areas of improvement.
Douet, Lisa
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Milne, Ruairidh
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Anstee, Sydney
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Habens, Fay
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Young, Amanda
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Wright, David
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29 November 2013
Douet, Lisa
cb6e8ce1-b840-41ed-82d6-08396f513095
Milne, Ruairidh
bd90470b-bba2-49a1-aa12-f1319d78afc2
Anstee, Sydney
16f6038e-7583-4c80-9306-255713acfaee
Habens, Fay
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Young, Amanda
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Wright, David
a55be721-4b15-4555-bf61-73fcb75c1a39
Douet, Lisa, Milne, Ruairidh, Anstee, Sydney, Habens, Fay, Young, Amanda and Wright, David
(2013)
The completeness of intervention descriptions in published NIHR HTA funded trials: a cross sectional study.
Trials, 14 (Suppl 1), [O27].
(doi:10.1186/1745-6215-14-S1-O27).
Record type:
Meeting abstract
Abstract
Objectives: the objective of this study is to assess whether NIHR HTA funded randomised controlled trials (RCTs) published in Health Technology Assessment journal were described in sufficient detail to replicate in practice.
Methods: a checklist for assessing intervention descriptions was applied to NIHR HTA funded RCTs published in Health Technology Assessment. The checklist was piloted twice on a sample of 10 reports. Kappa scores were generated to assess agreement in the checklist application. The checklist was modified and applied to all 98 NIHR HTA funded single trial RCTs published in the journal from January 1999 - March 2011. Three assessors independently applied the checklist. Disagreements in scoring were discussed in the team; differences were then explored and resolved.
Results: components of the intervention description were missing in 68 / 98 (69.4%) reports. Baseline characteristics and descriptions of settings had the highest levels of completeness with over 90% of reports complete. Reports were less complete on patient information with 58.2% of the monographs having an adequate description. Intervention descriptions were more complete for drug interventions than non-drug interventions with 33.3% and 30.6% levels of completeness respectively. Only 27.3% of RCTs with psychological interventions were deemed to be complete, although numbers were too small for differences to be significant statistically.
Conclusions: ensuring the replicability of a study intervention is an essential part of adding value in research. Research funders need to ensure transparency in the reporting of interventions, methods and findings and their responses to identified areas of improvement.
Text
1745-6215-14-S1-O27
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Published date: 29 November 2013
Organisations:
Health and Care Research Wales, Researcher Development, Wessex Institute, Research, NETSCC, Medicine
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 409019
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/409019
ISSN: 1745-6215
PURE UUID: 12a4a778-c429-4dd0-8f47-94cefaa3e308
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Date deposited: 28 May 2017 04:05
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 03:59
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Author:
Lisa Douet
Author:
Fay Habens
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