Selective outcome reporting in paediatric dentistry restorative treatment randomised clinical trials—A meta‐research

Autor: Fausto Mendes, Claudio Pannuti, Mariana Minatel Braga, Daniela P Raggio, Gabriela Seabra da Silva, Tamara Tedesco, Rokaia Elagami
Rok vydání: 2022
Předmět:
Zdroj: International Journal of Paediatric Dentistry. 33:89-98
ISSN: 1365-263X
0960-7439
Popis: BackgroundSelective outcome reporting (SOR) is a type of bias that occurs when the primary outcome of a randomized clinical trial (RCT) is omitted or changed prospectively. We evaluated the prevalence of SOR in RCTs on restorative caries treatment in primary teeth.MethodsWe conducted an electronic search on ClinicalTrials.gov and the World Health Organization (WHO) platform up to April/2021. We included RCT protocols that tested restorative treatments in primary teeth and excluded any protocol that has not resulted in at least one publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. The Chi-square test was used to detect the association between SOR and other variables (α = 5%).ResultsOut of 294 potential protocols, thirty were included. We found 34 corresponding publications and had the one that seemed to report the primary outcome and longest follow-up, resulting in 30 publications. SOR was observed in 53.3% (n=16) of the published trials and was significantly associated with the discrepancy in the follow-up period (p=0.017).ConclusionThere is a considerable prevalence of selective outcome reporting (SOR) on restorative trials in primary teeth. Properly pre-registered protocols and assessing them for the peer review processes will help decrease SOR.Practical implicationsRestorative treatment trials in primary teeth that selectively modify outcomes of interest have been shown to distort the treatment effect. Practitioners should avoid using restorative treatments based on misleading results in clinical practice.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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