SynthesisJournal of clinical epidemiology2017
Quality of missing data reporting and handling in palliative care trials demonstrates that further development of the CONSORT statement is required: a systematic review.
Synthesis in Journal of clinical epidemiology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 4 of them syntheses 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
22 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Global research trends, reporting and handling of missing data in observational studies of type 2 diabetes mellitus with mild cognitive impairment from 2020 to 2025: a systematic review.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2026Pooled it
- Reporting and handling of missing data in published studies of co-morbid hypertension and diabetes among people living with HIV/AIDS: a systematic review.BMC medical research methodology · 2025Pooled it
- Eligible Infants Included in Neonatal Clinical Trials and Reasons for Noninclusion: A Systematic Review.JAMA network open · 2024Pooled it
- Systematic Review of the Role of Stereotactic Radiotherapy for Bone Metastases.Journal of the National Cancer Institute · 2019Pooled it
- Missing not at random in end of life care studies: multiple imputation and sensitivity analysis on data from the ACTION study.BMC medical research methodology · 2021Trial
- Trial
- Net Pain Relief After Palliative Radiation Therapy for Painful Bone Metastases: A Useful Measure to Reflect Response Duration? A Further Analysis of the Dutch Bone Metastasis Study.International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics · 2019Trial
- Top Ten Tips Palliative Care Clinicians Should Know About Interpreting a Clinical Trial.Journal of palliative medicine · 2025Article
- REFORMS: Consensus-based Recommendations for Machine-learning-based Science.Science advances · 2024Review
- Trial arm outcome variance difference after dropout as an indicator of missing-not-at-random bias in randomized controlled trials.Biometrical journal. Biometrische Zeitschrift · 2023Article
- [Transition from intensive care to palliative care : A retrospective analysis of 102 consultation requests].Die Anaesthesiologie · 2023Article
- Reporting of Patient-Reported Outcome Measures in Randomized Controlled Trials on Shoulder Rotator Cuff Injuries Is Suboptimal and Requires Standardization.Arthroscopy, sports medicine, and rehabilitation · 2022Article
- The reporting and handling of missing data in longitudinal studies of older adults is suboptimal: a methodological survey of geriatric journals.BMC medical research methodology · 2022Review
- Sensitivity to missing not at random dropout in clinical trials: Use and interpretation of the trimmed means estimator.Statistics in medicine · 2022Article
- Developing an online, searchable database to systematically map and organise current literature on retention research (ORRCA2).Clinical trials (London, England) · 2022Article
- Development of guidelines to reduce, handle and report missing data in palliative care trials: A multi-stakeholder modified nominal group technique.Palliative medicine · 2022Article
- Successful Strategies and Areas of Improvement-Lessons Learned from Design and Conduction of a Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial in Palliative Care, 'Palliative-D'.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Potential impact of missing outcome data on treatment effects in systematic reviews: imputation study.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2020Review
- Outcome reporting recommendations for clinical trial protocols and reports: a scoping review.Trials · 2020Article
- Methodological challenges in conducting instrumentation research in non-communicative palliative care patients.Applied nursing research : ANR · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesAssess (i) the quality of reporting and handling of missing data (MD) in palliative care trials, (ii) whether there are differences in the reporting of criteria specified by the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) 2010 statement compared with those not specified, and (iii) the association of the reporting of MD with journal impact factor and CONSORT endorsement status. STUDY DESIGN AND
settingSystematic review of palliative care randomized controlled trials. CENTRAL, MEDLINE, and EMBASE (2009-2014) were searched.
resultsOne hundred and eight trials (15,560 participants) were included. MD was incompletely reported and not handled in accordance with current guidance. Reporting criteria specified by the CONSORT statement were better reported than those not specified (participant flow, 69%; number of participants not included in the primary outcome analysis, 94%; and the reason for MD, 71%). However, MD in items contributing to scale summaries (10%) and secondary outcomes (9%) were poorly reported, so the proportion of MD stated is likely to be an underestimate. The reason for MD provided was unclear for 54% of participants and only 16% of trials with MD reported a MD sensitivity analysis. The odds of reporting most of the MD and other risk of bias reporting criteria were increased as the journal impact factor increased and in journals that endorsed the CONSORT statement.
conclusionFurther development of the CONSORT MD reporting guidance is likely to improve the quality of reporting. Reporting recommendations are provided.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.