ArticleBMJ (Clinical research ed.)2022
Agreement of treatment effects from observational studies and randomized controlled trials evaluating hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir-ritonavir, or dexamethasone for covid-19: meta-epidemiological study.
Article in BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 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
13 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Concordance between target trial emulation and randomised controlled trials: systematic review and meta-analysis.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2026Pooled it
- The Impact of Study Size on COVID-19 Treatment Outcomes: A Meta-Epidemiological Study Comparing Large and Small Randomized Controlled Trials: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses.Reviews in medical virology · 2026Pooled it
- Treatment Effects in Randomized and Nonrandomized Studies of Pharmacological Interventions: A Meta-Analysis.JAMA network open · 2024Pooled it
- Healthcare outcomes assessed with observational study designs compared with those assessed in randomized trials: a meta-epidemiological study.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Exploring the association between antidepressants, progression and mortality in Huntington's disease.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2026Article
- Preoperative psychological health impacts pain and disability outcomes following anterior cervical discectomy and fusion for cervical radiculopathy.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Impact of mass media campaigns on knowledge of malaria prevention measures among pregnant mothers in Uganda: a propensity score-matched analysis.Malaria journal · 2024Article
- Design differences and variation in results between randomised trials and non-randomised emulations: meta-analysis of RCT-DUPLICATE data.BMJ medicine · 2024Article
- Totality of evidence of the effectiveness of repurposed therapies for COVID-19: Can we use real-world studies alongside randomized controlled trials?Clinical and translational science · 2023Article
- Article
- DESIGN DIFFERENCES EXPLAIN VARIATION IN RESULTS BETWEEN RANDOMIZED TRIALS AND THEIR NON-RANDOMIZED EMULATIONS.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2023Article
- Inclusion of nonrandomized studies of interventions in systematic reviews of interventions: updated guidance from the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality Effective Health Care program.Journal of clinical epidemiology · 2022Article
- Observational studies of traditional Chinese medicine may provide evidence nearly consistent with the randomized controlled trials: A meta-epidemiological study.Integrative medicine research · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo systematically identify, match, and compare treatment effects and study demographics from individual or meta-analysed observational studies and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating the same covid-19 treatments, comparators, and outcomes.
designMeta-epidemiological study. DATA SOURCES: National Institutes of Health Covid-19 Treatment Guidelines, a living review and network meta-analysis published in ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR SELECTION OF STUDIES: RCTs in DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: Safety and efficacy outcomes from observational studies were identified and treatment effects for dichotomous (odds ratios) or continuous (mean differences or ratios of means) outcomes were calculated and, when possible, meta-analyzed to match the treatment effects from individual RCTs or meta-analyses of RCTs reported in
results17 new, independent meta-analyses of observational studies were conducted that compared hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir-ritonavir, or dexamethasone with an active or placebo comparator for any safety or efficacy outcomes in covid-19 treatment. These studies were matched and compared with 17 meta-analyses of RCTs reported in
conclusionsMeta-analyses of observational studies and RCTs evaluating treatments for covid-19 have summary treatment effects that are generally in agreement. Although our evaluation is limited to three covid-19 treatments, these findings suggest that meta-analyzed evidence from observational studies might complement, but should not replace, evidence collected from RCTs.
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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.