Description of interventions is under-reported in physical therapy clinical trials.
K Hariohm, S Jeyanthi, J Saravan Kumar and 1 others
PMID 28579012WHAT IT FOUND
Only 35 of 100 physical therapy RCTs fully described both experimental and control interventions.
Control procedures were poorly described, so clinicians may not know what patients actually received.
Key findings
01Only 35 of 100 RCTs had complete descriptions of interventions in both experimental and control groups.
02Details of control group procedures were poorly described in 65% of interventions.
03Setting and recipient were the most clearly described items, at 98% and 100%.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The findings cover only 100 RCTs from four physical therapy journals, so they may not apply to trials in other journals. When a trial had more than two groups, one group was arbitrarily treated as control, and completeness required all groups to be adequately described. The authors used a checklist chosen to allow variation by intervention type, so the results may not match studies using the TIDieR checklist. Trials primarily focused on speech, drug therapy or other behavioral therapies were excluded.
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the 35% completeness figure as evidence about whether physical therapy works. It only shows how often published trials described both groups clearly enough for replication.