SynthesisThe Lancet. Global health2021
Completeness of reporting and risks of overstating impact in cluster randomised trials: a systematic review.
Synthesis in The Lancet. Global health, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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
15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Article
- Article
- Covariate adjustment in cluster randomised trials: a practical guide.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2025Article
- Article
- Article
- Article
- Practical design considerations for cluster randomized controlled trials: lessons learned in community oncology research.Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Monographs · 2025Article
- Reporting of cluster randomised crossover trials: extension of the CONSORT 2010 statement with explanation and elaboration.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2025Article
- Article
- Article
- Demystifying estimands in cluster-randomised trials.Statistical methods in medical research · 2024Article
- Key considerations for designing, conducting and analysing a cluster randomized trial.International journal of epidemiology · 2023Article
- Constrained randomization and statistical inference for multi-arm parallel cluster randomized controlled trials.Statistics in medicine · 2022Article
- Mind the gap: covariate constrained randomisation can protect against substantial power loss in parallel cluster randomised trials.BMC medical research methodology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Overstating the impact of interventions through incomplete or inaccurate reporting can lead to inappropriate scale-up of interventions with low impact. Accurate reporting of the impact of interventions is of great importance in global health research to protect scarce resources. In global health, the cluster randomised trial design is commonly used to evaluate complex, multicomponent interventions, and outcomes are often binary. Complete reporting of impact for binary outcomes means reporting both relative and absolute measures. We did a systematic review to assess reporting practices and potential to overstate impact in contemporary cluster randomised trials with binary primary outcome. We included all reports registered in the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials of two-arm parallel cluster randomised trials with at least one binary primary outcome that were published in 2017. Of 73 cluster randomised trials, most (60 [82%]) showed incomplete reporting. Of 64 cluster randomised trials for which it was possible to evaluate, most (40 [63%]) reported results in such a way that impact could be overstated. Care is needed to report complete evidence of impact for the many interventions evaluated using the cluster randomised trial design worldwide.
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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.