Reported Characteristics of Participants in Physical Therapy–Related Clinical Trials

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The inclusion of sociodemographic and anthropometric variables in published clinical trials enables physical therapists to determine the applicability of trial results to patients in their clinics. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine the reporting of participant sociodemographic and anthropometric characteristics in published physical therapy-related clinical trials. DESIGN: This was a retrospective review of clinical trials from 2 samples drawn from literature applicable to physical therapy. METHODS: Two reviewers independently extracted data from a random sample of 152 clinical trials from the Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) and a purposive sample of 85 clinical trials published in the journal Physical Therapy (PTJ). A database containing the occurrence of sociodemographic (age, sex, race/ethnicity, level of education, marital status) and anthropometric variables (height, weight, body mass index) in each article was created to generate descriptive statistics about both samples. RESULTS: Among the sociodemographic variables, at least 90% of articles reported the sex and age of trial participants. Additional sociodemographic characteristics that were reported in 20% to 26% of articles were participant level of education and participant race/ethnicity. The reporting of anthropometric data differed between the 2 samples, with body mass index being most commonly reported in the PEDro sample (48.0%) and weight being most commonly reported in the PTJ sample (38.8%). LIMITATIONS: Articles reviewed were limited by year of publication (from 2008 to 2012 for PTJ articles and 2010 for clinical trials from PEDro) and to English-language-only literature. CONCLUSIONS: The physical therapy literature would benefit from enhanced reporting requirements for both sociodemographic and anthropometric data about participants.

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