Trial reportPalliative medicine2021
Performance status and trial site-level factors are associated with missing data in palliative care trials: An individual participant-level data analysis of 10 phase 3 trials.
Trial report in Palliative medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Research Study Attrition and Participant-Informed Retention Strategies Among Cancer Survivors.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Development of guidelines to reduce, handle and report missing data in palliative care trials: A multi-stakeholder modified nominal group technique.Palliative medicine · 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
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundMissing data compromise the internal and external validity of trial findings, however there is limited evidence on how best to reduce missing data in palliative care trials.
aimTo assess the association between participant and site level factors and missing data in palliative care trials. DESIGN AND
settingIndividual participant-level data analysis of 10 phase 3 palliative care trials using multi-level cross-classified models.
resultsParticipants with missing data at the previous time-point and poorer performance status were more likely to have missing data for the primary outcome and quality of life outcomes, at the primary follow-up point and end of follow-up. At the end of follow-up, the number of site randomisations and number of study site personnel were significantly associated with missing data. Trial duration and the number of research personnel explained most of the variance at the trial and site-level respectively, except for the primary outcome where the amount of data requested was most important at the trial-level. Variance at the trial level was more substantial than at the site level across models and considerable variance remained unexplained for all models except quality of life at the end of follow-up.
conclusionParticipants with a poorer performance status are at higher risk of missing data in palliative care trials and require additional support to provide complete data. Performance status is a potential auxiliary variable for missing data imputation models. Reducing trial variability should be prioritised and further factors need to be identified and explored to explain the residual variance.
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Registered trials
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