Reporting quality of randomized controlled trials in rehabilitation: A literature review

Abstract

[Purpose] The enhancement of the results of scientific research, in order to impressively present the impact of studies, is called “SPIN”. The aim of this study was to investigate the SPIN of randomized controlled trials in rehabilitation. [Subjects and Methods] The literature was searched using the Medline database. Research articles not clarifying the primary outcome in the main text and significant effects in the primary outcome were excluded. The extracted papers were evaluated for SPIN as specific reporting strategies, such as stressing the treatment is beneficial, despite a statistically non-significant difference for the primary outcome, or to distract the reader from statistically non-significant results. [Results] The Abstracts of 32/42 papers (76.2%) were judged to contain SPIN, as were 20/42 (47.6%) Results in the main text. [Conclusion]: The results of the present study should be a warning to paper readers against judging clinical decision-making from only the Abstract or Results of the main text in randomized controlled trials in rehabilitation.