Inclusion of Clinical Trial Registration Numbers in Conference Abstracts and Conformance of Abstracts to CONSORT Guidelines

摘要

Clinical trial registration facilitates identification, tracking, and assessment of clinical trials and limits publication bias caused by the selective reporting of trial results. Inclusion of trial registration numbers in conference abstracts, as recommended by the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) guidelines for abstracts is particularly important because many conference presentations of trials remain unpublished. In the present study, we reviewed abstracts presented at 8 major medical and surgical conferences held in 2017 to assess the extent to which conference abstracts reporting randomized clinical trial (RCT) results cite trial registration numbers and conform to other key CONSORT guidelines. Methods I For this cross-sectional study, 8 major conferences held in 2017 in the fields of cardiology, endocrinology, gastro-enterology, hepatology, nephrology, and urology (medical specialties of special interest to the authors) and with readily available abstracts were selected for review (Table). Abstracts were identified by searching for the word randomized (or randomised). Abstracts that reported primary results of an RCT were then examined for inclusion of a trial registration number, and the following 5 additional key elements of the CONSORT guidelines for abstracts: the word randomized or randomised or RCT in the title, statement of a primary outcome, number of participants randomized in each group, and number of participants analyzed in each group, and dates of recruitment and follow-up. Inclusion of a trial registration number and the additional 5 CONSORT reporting items in the abstract were each given a score of 1 if present and 0 if absent and then combined to obtain a summary score with a range of 0 to 6.