Quantity and quality of randomized controlled trials published by Indian physiotherapists (original) (raw)
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Quantitative and qualitative analysis of Randomized Controlled trials in Physiotherapy from India.
ABSTRACT Introduction and Rationale: Increased scope of Physiotherapy (PT) practice also has contributed to research in the field of PT. It is essential to determine the production and quality of the clinical trials from India since, it may reflect the scientific growth of the profession. These trends can be taken as a baseline to measure our performance and also can be used as a guideline for the future trials. Objective: To quantify and analyse qualitatively the RCT’s from India from the period 2000-2013’May, and classify data for the information process Materials and Methods Studies were searched in the Medline database using the key terms “India”, “Indian”, “Physiotherapy”. Clinical trials only with PT authors were included. Trials out of scope of PT practice & on animals were excluded. Retrieved valid articles were analysed for published year, type of participants, area of study, PEDro score, outcome measure domains of impairment, activity, participation, ‘a priori’ sample size calculation, region Results 47 valid articles were retrieved from the year 2000-2013’May. The majority of articles were done on symptomatic participants (81%). The frequencies of conditions repeated more were low back pain (n-7) and diabetes (n-4).PEDro score with mode 5 and upper limit of 8 and lower limit 4 was found. 97.2% of studies measures the outcome at the impairment level, 35.1% in activity level, 27.8% in participation level.29.7% of studies did ‘a priori’ sample size calculation. Correlation of year trend and PEDro score found to be not significant (p>.05). Individual PEDro item analysis showed, blinding of patient and therapist (7.1%,0%,23.1%) randomisation(100%),Concealment(33%)Baseline(76%) (18%),statistics between groups(100%), measures of variance(87.2%). Conclusion The trend shows an upward slope in terms of RCTs published from India which is a good indicator. The qualitative analysis showed some gaps in the clinical trial design, which can be expected to be, fulfilled by the future researchers.
Physiotherapy, 2009
Objective To compare the comprehensiveness of indexing the reports of randomised controlled trials of physiotherapy interventions by eight bibliographic databases (AMED, CENTRAL, CINAHL, EMBASE, Hooked on Evidence, PEDro, PsycINFO and PubMed). Design Audit of bibliographic databases. Methods Two hundred and eighty-one reports of randomised controlled trials of physiotherapy interventions were identified by screening the reference lists of 30 relevant systematic reviews published in four consecutive issues of the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (Issue 3, 2007 to Issue 2, 2008. AMED, CENTRAL, CINAHL, EMBASE, Hooked on Evidence, PEDro, PsycINFO and PubMed were used to search for the trial reports. The number of trial reports indexed in each database was calculated. Results PEDro indexed 99% of the trial reports, CENTRAL indexed 98%, PubMed indexed 91%, EMBASE indexed 82%, CINAHL indexed 61%, Hooked on Evidence indexed 40%, AMED indexed 36% and PsycINFO indexed 17%. Most trial reports (92%) were indexed on four or more of the databases. One trial report was indexed on a single database (PEDro). Conclusions Of the eight bibliographic databases examined, PEDro and CENTRAL provide the most comprehensive indexing of reports of randomised trials of physiotherapy interventions. Crown
Purpose: The quality of reports of randomized trials of physiotherapy interventions varies by year of publication, language of publication and whether the intervention being assessed is a type of electrotherapy. Whether it also varies by subdiscipline of physiotherapy has not yet been systematically investigated. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the quality of trial reports varies according to the subdiscipline of physiotherapy being evaluated. Methods: Reports of physiotherapy trials were identified using the Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro). Quality of the trial report was evaluated using the PEDro scale (total PEDro score and 11 individual PEDro scale items). Multiple linear and logistic regressions were used to predict the quality of trial reports, with subdisciplines, time since publication, language of publication, and evaluation of electrotherapy as independent variables in the model. Results: Total PEDro scores are higher when trial reports are more recent; are published in English; investigate electrotherapy; and are in the subdisciplines of musculoskeletal, neurology, cardiopulmonary, gerontology, continence and women's health, orthopaedics, or paediatrics. Trials in the subdisciplines of ergonomics and occupational health, oncology, and sports are associated with lower total PEDro scores. The musculoskeletal subdiscipline had a positive association with six of the PEDro scale items, more than any other subdiscipline. Conclusions: There is scope to improve the quality of the conduct and reporting of randomized trials across all the physiotherapy subdisciplines. This study provides specific information about how each physiotherapy subdiscipline can improve trial quality.
Sao Paulo Medical Journal, 2013
CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVEEvidence-based clinical practice emerged with the aim of guiding clinical issues in order to reduce the degree of uncertainty in decision-making. The Cochrane Collaboration has been developing systematic reviews on randomized controlled trials as high-quality intervention study subjects. Today, physiotherapy methods are widely required in treatments within many fields of healthcare. Therefore, it is extremely important to map out the situation regarding scientific evidence within physiotherapy. The aim of this study was to identify systematic reviews on physiotherapeutic interventions and investigate the scientific evidence and recommendations regarding whether further studies would be needed.TYPE OF STUDY AND SETTINGCross-sectional study conducted within the postgraduate program on Internal Medicine and Therapeutics and at the Brazilian Cochrane Center.METHODSSystematic reviews presenting physiotherapeutic interventions as the main investigation, in the Cochran...
Background: The Evidence-Based Research (EBR) approach requires authors to base their research on a systematic review of the existing literature. Adhering to this approach prevents the generation of redundant scientific studies, thereby avoiding the deprivation of effective therapies for trial participants and the waste of research funds. To promote the adoption of this approach, scientific medical journals could include the EBR approach in their author guidelines. While this applies to all areas of research, it is particularly relevant to physiotherapy and rehabilitation research, which predominantly involve interventional trials in patients. Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the extent to which the EBR approach is already being requested by physiotherapy-related scientific medical journals (PTJs). In addition, a comparison was made between PTJs and leading journals (LJs), i.e. scientific medical journals with the highest impact factor in the Science Citation Index ...
Evidence for physiotherapy practice: A survey of the Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro)
Australian Journal of Physiotherapy, 2002
Evidence-based practice involves the use of evidence from systematic reviews and randomised controlled trials, but the extent of this evidence in physiotherapy has not previously been surveyed. The aim of this survey is to describe the quantity and quality of randomised controlled trials and the quantity of systematic reviews relevant to physiotherapy. The Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) was searched. The quality of trials was assessed with the PEDro scale. The search identified a total of 2,376 randomised controlled trials and 332 systematic reviews. The first trial was published in 1955 and the first review was published in 1982. Since that time, the number of trials and reviews has grown exponentially. The mean PEDro quality score has increased from 2.8 in trials published between 1955 and 1959 to 5.0 for trials published between 1995 and 1999. There is a substantial body of evidence about the effects of physiotherapy. However, there remains scope for improvements in the quality of the conduct and reporting of clinical trials. [Moseley AM, Herbert RD, Sherrington C and Maher CG (2002): Evidence for physiotherapy practice: A survey of the Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro). Australian Journal of Physiotherapy 48: 43-49] References Bithell C (2000): Evidence-based physiotherapy: some thoughts on 'best evidence'. Physiotherapy 86: 58-60. Coyer AB and Curwen IH (1955): Low back pain treated by manipulation. A controlled series. British Medical Journal 1: 705-707. Harris R and Millard JB (1955): Paraffin-wax baths in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Annals of Rheumatic Diseases 14: 278-283.