A quantitative and qualitative evaluation of reports of clinical trials published in six Brazilian dental journals indexed in the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO)
J. appl. oral sci
;
18(2): 104-109, Mar.-Apr. 2010. ilus
Article
in English
| LILACS, BBO
| ID: lil-550414
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION:
Open access publishing is becoming increasingly popular within the biomedical sciences. SciELO, the Scientific Electronic Library Online, is a digital library covering a selected collection of Brazilian scientific journals many of which provide open access to full-text articles.This library includes a number of dental journals some of which may include reports of clinical trials in English, Portuguese and/or Spanish. Thus, SciELO could play an important role as a source of evidence for dental healthcare interventions especially if it yields a sizeable number of high quality reports.OBJECTIVE:
The aim of this study was to identify reports of clinical trials by handsearching of dental journals that are accessible through SciELO, and to assess the overall quality of these reports. MATERIAL ANDMETHODS:
Electronic versions of six Brazilian dental Journals indexed in SciELO were handsearched at www.scielo.br in September 2008. Reports of clinical trials were identified and classified as controlled clinical trials (CCTs - prospective, experimental studies comparing 2 or more healthcare interventions in human beings) or randomized controlled trials (RCTs - a random allocation method is clearly reported), according to Cochrane eligibility criteria. CRITERIA TO ASSESS METHODOLOGICAL QUALITY INCLUDED method of randomization, concealment of treatment allocation, blinded outcome assessment, handling of withdrawals and losses and whether an intention-to-treat analysis had been carried out.RESULTS:
The search retrieved 33 CCTs and 43 RCTs. A majority of the reports provided no description of either the method of randomization (75.3 percent) or concealment of the allocation sequence (84.2 percent). Participants and outcome assessors were reported as blinded in only 31.2 percent of the reports. Withdrawals and losses were only clearly described in 6.5 percent of the reports and none mentioned an intention-to-treat analysis or any similar ...
Full text:
Available
Index:
LILACS (Americas)
Main subject:
Clinical Trials as Topic
/
Databases, Bibliographic
Type of study:
Controlled clinical trial
/
Prognostic study
/
Qualitative research
/
Systematic reviews
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
South America
/
Brazil
Language:
English
Journal:
J. appl. oral sci
Journal subject:
Dentistry
Year:
2010
Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Bahrain
/
Brazil
/
Germany
Institution/Affiliation country:
Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care/DE
/
São Paulo State University/BR
/
The Cochrane Collaboration/BH
/
University of São Paulo/CA
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