Evidence map›Paper›PMID 23065196›Full record

SynthesisJournal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA2013

Internet-based randomized controlled trials: a systematic review.

Erin Mathieu, Kevin McGeechan, Alexandra Barratt, Robert Herbert

Abstract readSystematic Review
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 58 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
58citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
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

58 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Internet-based interventions for smoking cessation.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2017
    Pooled it
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  5. Crush: A Randomized Trial to Evaluate the Impact of a Mobile Health App on Adolescent Sexual Health.The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine · 2023
    Trial
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  16. Baseline Characteristics and Generalizability of Participants in an Internet Smoking Cessation Randomized Trial.Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine · 2016
    Trial
  17. Trial
  18. Internet-based physical activity intervention for women with a family history of breast cancer.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2015
    Trial
  19. Trial
  20. Trial
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.

Erin MathieuSydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. e.mathieu@uws.edu.au
Kevin McGeechan
Alexandra Barratt
Robert Herbert

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundThe internet is increasingly being used to conduct randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Knowledge of the types of interventions evaluated and the methodological quality of these trials could inform decisions about whether to conduct future trials using conventional methods, fully online or a mixture of the two.

objectiveTo identify and describe the scope of internet-based RCTs for human health condition interventions and evaluate their methodological quality.

methodsA systematic review of RCTs of any health intervention conducted fully or primarily on the internet was carried out.

results23 fully and 27 primarily internet-based RCTs were identified. The first was conducted in 2000. The majority of trials evaluated interventions that involved providing health information to participants, but a few evaluated self-administered interventions (eg, valerian, stretching). Methodological quality was variable and the methods were generally poorly reported. The risk of bias was low in only a small number of trials; most had substantial methodological shortcomings. Only one trial was identified as meeting all criteria for adequate methodological quality. A particular problem was high rates of loss to follow-up (fully online: mean 47%; primarily online: mean 36%).

conclusionsIt is theoretically possible but perhaps difficult to test the effectiveness of health interventions rigorously with RCTs conducted fully or primarily over the internet. The use of the internet to conduct trials is more suited to pragmatic rather than explanatory trials. The main limitation of these trials is that they typically experience high rates of loss to follow-up. Methodological standards now accepted for traditional RCTs needs to be evident for online RCTs as well, especially in reporting of their methods.

Indexed as

InternetHumansPatient SelectionRandomized Controlled Trials as Topic

Identifiers

PMID23065196
PMCPMC3628055

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

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.