More than 66% of all RCT in JPS reported on eligibility criteria, admission before allocation, random allocation, method of randomization, patients' blindness to treatment, treatment complications, statistical analyses, statistical methods, loss to follow-up, and statistical methods; 2 elements of design and analysis, however, were poorly reported: blind assessment of outcome (33%) and power (17%).
They have a random admission process and are typically located in high-need areas of New York City and the state.
The pediatric admission in the random sample of 600 admissions during 2010 constituted the index admission.
Other patient characteristics were also similar in these two subgroups at ICU admission and at random assignment (data not shown).
The study was performed between October 2008 and November 2010 and included those patients who required intensive care for ≥8 days as well as a computer-generated, admission category-matched, random sample of short-stay ICU patients, the latter to correct for possible bias evoked by earlier ICU discharge in one of the two study groups.
However, their methodology only tested HbA1c on those with bloods taken at admission with a random plasma glucose >5.5 mmol/L, so it is not truly representative of hospital inpatients, rather representative of a group with an expected higher positive rate of diabetes.
The study was approved by the local institutional review board (clinicaltrial.gov: SHEBA-13-0685-IB-CTIL). Patients were considered to have DM if they fulfilled at least one of the followings: (1) HbA1c >6.5%% at admission, (2) a random plasma glucose level higher than 200 mg/dl in the presence of symptoms, (3) use of glucose lowering medications.
The school, Academic Leadership Charter School, opened in 2009 and is the first New York City charter to be disciplined for violating the rules for random admissions.
In fact they bear a strong resemblance to dog-walking conversations - bizarre and random admissions that are revealed in a windy park as the pets go about their business.
