ArticleTrials2021
COVID-19: underpowered randomised trials, or no randomised trials?
Article in Trials, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Hard and soft tissue contour changes following simultaneous guided bone regeneration at single peri-implant dehiscence defects using either resorbable or non-resorbable membranes: a 6-month secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial.Clinical oral investigations · 2025Trial
- Trial
- Effect of Wearing Glasses on Risk of Infection With SARS-CoV-2 in the Community: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2022Trial
- Randomized trials on non-pharmaceutical interventions for COVID-19: a scoping review.BMJ evidence-based medicine · 2022Article
- Can a combination of vaccination and face mask wearing contain the COVID-19 pandemic?Microbial biotechnology · 2022Review
- Much ado about something: a response to "COVID-19: underpowered randomised trials, or no randomised trials?"Trials · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
- Comment on
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
A recently published trial of face mask use to protect against COVID-19 demonstrated a key barrier to carrying out randomised trials in public health: the need for unattainably large sample sizes. For many public health interventions, the choice is not between sufficiently powered trials and underpowered trials, but between underpowered trials and no trials at all. Underpowered trials should be viewed as contributions to the larger body of evidence, alongside other studies of various sizes and designs, collectively assessed and synthesized in systematic reviews. Overemphasis on sample size calculation is probably more of a hindrance than a help to scientific progress.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.