Evidence map›Paper›PMID 20565837›Full record

ArticleBMC medical research methodology2010

Analysis of an ordinal outcome in a multicentric randomized controlled trial: application to a 3- arm anti- malarial drug trial in Cameroon.

Solange Youdom Whegang, Leonardo K Basco, Henri Gwét, Jean-Christophe Thalabard

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in BMC medical research methodology, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
0.3field-weighted citation impact, top 34% of its field
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed, 9 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Trial
  2. Article
  3. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.

Solange Youdom WhegangDépartement de Mathématiques et Sciences Physiques, Université de Yaoundé I, Ecole Nationale Supérieure Polytechnique, Yaounde, Cameroon. solange.whegang@math-info.univ-paris5.fr
Leonardo K Basco
Henri Gwét
Jean-Christophe Thalabard
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique · FRInstitut de Recherche pour le Développement · BJUniversité de Yaoundé I · CM

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundMalaria remains a burden in Sub-Saharan Countries. The strategy proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO) is to systematically compare the therapeutic efficacy of antimalarial drugs using as primary outcome for efficacy, a four-category ordered criterion. The objective of the present work was to analyze the treatment effects on this primary outcome taking into account both a center-effect and individual covariates. A three-arm, three-centre trial of Amodiaquine (AQ), sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) and their combination (AQ + SP), conducted by OCEAC-IRD in 2003, in 538 children with uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria, is used as an illustration.

methodsAnalyses were based on ordinal regression methods, assuming an underlying continuous latent variable, using either the proportional odds (PO) or the proportional hazards (PH) models. Different algorithms, corresponding to both frequentist- and bayesian-approaches, were implemented using the freely available softwares R and Winbugs, respectively. The performances of the different methods were evaluated on a simulated data set, and then they were applied on the trial data set.

resultsGood coverage probability and type-1 error for the treatment effect were achieved. When the methods were applied on the trial data set, results highlighted a significance decrease of SP efficacy when compared to AQ (PO, odds ratio [OR] 0.14, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.04-0.57; hazard ratio [HR] 0.605, 95% CI 0.42-0.82), and an equal effectiveness between AQ + SP and AQ (PO, odds ratio [OR] 1.70, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.25-11.44; hazard ratio [HR] 1.40, 95% CI 0.88-2.18). The body temperature was significantly related to the responses. The patient weights were marginally associated to the clinical response.

conclusionThe proposed analyses, based on usual statistical packages, appeared adapted to take into account the full information contained in the four categorical outcome in malaria trials, as defined by WHO, with the possibility of adjusting on individual and global covariates.

Indexed as

Models, StatisticalAmodiaquineAntimalarialsCameroonChild, PreschoolDrug CombinationsDrug Therapy, CombinationEpidemiologic MethodsHumansInfantMalaria, FalciparumMulticenter Studies as TopicProportional Hazards ModelsPyrimethamineRandomized Controlled Trials as TopicRegression AnalysisAmodiaquineAntimalarialsDrug Combinationsfanasil, pyrimethamine drug combinationPyrimethamineSulfadoxine

Identifiers

PMID20565837
PMCPMC2908105
OpenAlexW2145420627

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.