The mechanism used to allocate interventions was omitted in reports of 89% of trials in rheumatoid arthritis, 108 48% of trials in obstetrics and gynaecology journals, 23 and 44% of trials in general medical journals.
75 There were differences between intervention and control group patients in reports of having received an intervention and in intention to change.
Incomplete descriptions of interventions are a common problem in reports of randomised controlled trials.
The guidelines provide advice on use of appropriate statistical analysis techniques and the measures necessary to prevent bias, with the aim of ensuring complete transparency in reports of such interventions, their epidemiological context and potential confounders.
We assessed the frequency with which components of the framework have been addressed in reports of caregiving intervention studies so that we could identify gaps in the literature that deserve attention in future applications.
It is possible that the boundary was blurred between brief advice and more intense interventions in the reporting of these SSS.
However, given the documented substantial deficiencies in reporting of interventions and the demonstration that it is partly remediable, authors and editors should take action now to reduce this waste in research.
The guideline could also result in increased consistency in reporting of educational interventions, which could allow consumers of research to directly compare the educational interventions between studies and assist the undertaking and reporting of systematic reviews.
8 9 Several possible reasons could explain why this study did not reproduce the whole group benefits seen in other recent studies: differences in interventions and reporting of outcomes, in healthcare systems, in the eligibility of patients for studies, and in the effectiveness of the intervention itself.
2 Studies have highlighted concerns about the descriptions of interventions in final reports and publications.
The study is designed as a single centre, randomised, placebo controlled trial and reported following the STRICTA (Standards for Reporting Interventions in Clinical Trials of Acupuncture) reporting guidelines [ 11], and the CONSORT statement [ 12].
