Reporting quality of randomized trials in the diet and exercise literature for weight loss
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Issue Date
2005-02-23Author
Gibson, Cheryl A.
Kirk, Erik P.
LeCheminant, James D.
Bailey, Bruce W.
Huang, Guoyuan
Donnelly, Joseph E.
Publisher
BioMed Central
Type
Article
Article Version
Scholarly/refereed, publisher version
Rights
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Show full item recordAbstract
Background:
To adequately assess individual studies and synthesize quantitative research on weight loss studies, transparent reporting of data is required. The authors examined the reporting quality of randomized trials in the weight loss literature, focusing exclusively on subject characteristics as they relate to enrollment, allocation, and follow-up.
Methods:
An extensive literature review, which included a computerized search of the MEDLINE database, manual searches of bibliographic references, and cross-referencing of 92 review articles was conducted. A checklist, based on CONSORT recommendations, was used to collect information on whether or not authors reported age, gender, co-morbid disease, medication use, race/ethnicity, and postmenopausal status. Also tracked was whether or not initial and final sample size was reported and stratified by gender.
Results:
Of 604 possible articles, 231 articles met eligibility criteria. Important subject characteristics were not reported as the following breakdown indicates: age (11%), gender (4%), race/ethnicity (86%), co-morbid disease states (34%), and medication use (92%). Additionally, 21% of articles failed to report initial sample size by gender while 69% neglected to report final sample size by gender.
Conclusion:
Inadequate reporting can create difficulties with interpretation and can lead to biased results receiving false credibility. The quality of reporting for weight loss studies needs considerable improvement.
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Citation
Gibson, Cheryl A, Erik P Kirk, James D LeCheminant, Bruce W Bailey, Guoyuan Huang, and Joseph E Donnelly. 2005. “Reporting Quality of Randomized Trials in the Diet and Exercise Literature for Weight Loss.” BMC Medical Research Methodology 5 . http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2288-5-9
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as: This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.