Trial reportThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2009
Open Access Tubal aSsessment for the initial management of infertility in general practice (the OATS trial): a pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial.
Trial report in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- Direct access cancer testing in primary care: a systematic review of use and clinical outcomes.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2018Pooled it
- Community diagnostic centres: bringing diagnostics closer to home.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2021Article
- Direct access from general practice to transvaginal ultrasound for early detection of ovarian cancer: a feasibility study.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2021Article
- How usual is usual care in pragmatic intervention studies in primary care? An overview of recent trials.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2010Article
- Direct access to diagnostic services.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2009Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundGPs investigate approximately half of all infertile couples with semen analysis and endocrine blood tests. For assessment of tubal status, hysterosalpingography (HSG) is recommended as a first-line investigation for women not known to have comorbidities.
aimTo test whether providing GPs with open access to HSG results in infertile couples progressing to a diagnosis and management plan sooner than with usual management. DESIGN OF STUDY: A pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial.
settingSeventy-one of 173 general practices in north-east England agreed to participate.
methodA total of 670 infertile couples presented to 33 intervention practices and 25 control practices over a 2-year period. Practices allocated to the intervention group had access to HSG for those infertile women who fulfilled predefined eligibility criteria. The primary outcome measure was the interval between presentation to the GP and the couple receiving a diagnosis and management plan.
resultsAn annual incidence of 0.8 couples per 1000 total population equated to each GP seeing an average of one or two infertile couples each year. Open access HSG was used for 9% of all infertile women who presented to the intervention practices during the study period. The time to reach a diagnosis and management plan for all infertile couples presenting was not affected by the availability of open access HSG (Cox regression hazard ratio = 0.9, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.7 to 1.1). For couples who reached a diagnosis and management plan, there was a non-significant difference in time to primary outcome for intervention versus control practices (32.5 weeks versus 30.5 weeks, mean difference 2.2 weeks, 95% CI = 1.6 to 6.1 weeks, P = 0.1). The intracluster correlation coefficient was 0.03 across all practices.
conclusionProviding GPs with open access to HSG had no effect on the time taken to reach a diagnosis and management plan for couples with infertility.
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