A study recently published in Spine compared randomized controlled trial abstract to the manuscripts published in the recent spine literature.
The research included articles from journals Spine, The Spine Journal and Journal of Spinal Disorders and Techniques over a 10-year period. There were 40 manuscripts included in the study. Researchers found:
• 75 percent of studies had at least one inconsistency
• 75 percent titles and 92 percent of abstracts had the word "randomized" but in 37.5 percent the randomization method wasn't described; in 28 percent the description was unacceptable.
• 22.5 percent of abstracts and 47.5 percent of manuscripts had a clearly stated primary outcome.
• 40 percent of abstracts did not include pertinent negatives
• 60 percent of abstracts reported relevant statistically significant results; the remaining did not.
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