Published in:
01-03-2018 | Concise Research Reports
A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Spin in Randomized Controlled Trials
Authors:
Alexandra Woodbridge, BS, BA, Ann Abraham, BS, Rosa Ahn, BA, Susan Saba, MPH, Deborah Korenstein, MD, Erin Madden, MPH, Salomeh Keyhani, MD, MPH
Published in:
Journal of General Internal Medicine
|
Issue 3/2018
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Excerpt
Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are the most reliable form of evidence for evaluating drug safety and efficacy. Because clinicians rely on RCTs to inform clinical practice, accurate representation of clinical trial results is important to patient health and safety. Spin, defined as reporting that distorts results or misleads the reader,
1 threatens accurate evidence interpretation and application by clinicians. Given that many clinicians obtain information from the study abstract only, spin in the abstract is concerning.
2 We examined the prevalence of spin among abstracts in a random sample of trials focused on the efficacy of drugs and examined the association of spin with study characteristics. …
