ArticleJournal of postgraduate medicine
The importance of small samples in medical research.
Article in Journal of postgraduate medicine. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 49 papers, 6 of them syntheses 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.
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Who cites it
49 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- School-based interventions of menstrual hygiene management in Indonesia: systematic literature review.BMC women's health · 2026Pooled it
- Visual attention and postural stability among older adults participating in health-enhancing physical activity: a systematic review.Frontiers in network physiology · 2026Pooled it
- Effects of proprioceptive training intervention on knee function in patients with anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Annals of medicine · 2025Pooled it
- The Continuous Fragility Index of Statistically Significant Findings in Randomized Controlled Trials That Compare Interventions for Anterior Shoulder Instability.The American journal of sports medicine · 2024Pooled it
- Small Study Effects in Diagnostic Imaging Accuracy: A Meta-Analysis.JAMA network open · 2022Pooled it
- The development of QERM scoring system for comprehensive assessment of the Quality of Empirical Research in Medicine - Part 1.Journal of postgraduate medicinePooled it
- Trial
- First-in-human, double-blind, randomized phase 1b study of peptide immunotherapy IMCY-0098 in new-onset type 1 diabetes: an exploratory analysis of immune biomarkers.BMC medicine · 2024Trial
- Sometimes Less Is More: On Sample Size in Medical Research.Journal of evaluation in clinical practice · 2026Review
- Clinical follow-up 7-12 years after autologous chondrocyte implantation with a hydrogel scaffold (CaReS©) in knee cartilage defects.Wiener klinische Wochenschrift · 2026Article
- Brain atrophy rates vary with age in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis.Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry · 2026Article
- Maternal Experiences with Exclusive Pumping-An Online Survey.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Refining insights on type 2 diabetes and aortic valve replacement-reply to Liu et al.Diabetic medicine : a journal of the British Diabetic Association · 2026Article
- Prevalence and determinants of unintended pregnancy among female sex workers (FSW) in Jashore, Bangladesh.PloS one · 2026Article
- Interplay between dietary antioxidants and oxidative/nitrosative stress in stage III periodontitis: a preliminary quasi-experimental study in a Mexican population.Frontiers in oral health · 2026Article
- Production of a risk mitigation matrix and four-grade threshold scale using Cox Regression to predict osteoarthritis development.Open life sciences · 2026Article
- Reasons for Participating in the EDS-HEART Program: Holistic and Performative Within a Supportive Community.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Implementation Framework to Increase Patient Adherence in Clinical Trials Utilizing Wearable Devices.Research square · 2025Article
- Authors' response.The Indian journal of medical research · 2025Article
- The Psychological Impact of Dealing with Death and the Risk of Dying Among Nurses Working in ICU and NICU: Specificities in Mediating and Moderating Variables.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Almost all bio-statisticians and medical researchers believe that a large sample is always helpful in providing more reliable results. Whereas this is true for some specific cases, a large sample may not be helpful in more situations than we contemplate because of the higher possibility of errors and reduced validity. Many medical breakthroughs have occurred with self-experimentation and single experiments. Studies, particularly analytical studies, may provide more truthful results with a small sample because intensive efforts can be made to control all the confounders, wherever they operate, and sophisticated equipment can be used to obtain more accurate data. A large sample may be required only for the studies with highly variable outcomes, where an estimate of the effect size with high precision is required, or when the effect size to be detected is small. This communication underscores the importance of small samples in reaching a valid conclusion in certain situations and describes the situations where a large sample is not only unnecessary but may even compromise the validity by not being able to exercise full care in the assessments. What sample size is small depends on the context.
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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.