Evidence map›Paper›PMID 37775522›Full record

ReviewNPJ digital medicine2023

Selecting and describing control conditions in mobile health randomized controlled trials: a proposed typology.

Simon B Goldberg, Shufang Sun, Per Carlbring, John Torous

Abstract readReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in NPJ digital medicine, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 51 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
51citing papers in PubMed, 5 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

51 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Simon B GoldbergDepartment of Counseling Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA. sbgoldberg@wisc.edu.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6888-0126
Shufang SunDepartment of Behavioral and Social Sciences, Brown University School of Public Health, Providence, RI, USA.
Per CarlbringDepartment of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2172-8813
John TorousDepartment of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5362-7937

Funding

Developing Internet-Delivered, Mindfulness-based Intervention to Reduce HIV Risk and Promote Mental and Sexual Health among Young Adult MSMK23AT011173 · NCCIH · BROWN UNIVERSITY · PI SUN, SHUFANG · 2020 to 2024
$1.0M
Mindfulness training delivered via mobile health to reduce depression and anxietyK23AT010879 · NCCIH · UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON · PI GOLDBERG, SIMON B · 2020 to 2024
$786k
NCCIH NIH HHS K23 AT010879NCCIH NIH HHS K23 AT011173
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Hundreds of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have tested the efficacy of mobile health (mHealth) tools for a wide range of mental and behavioral health outcomes. These RCTs have used a variety of control condition types which dramatically influence the scientific inferences that can be drawn from a given study. Unfortunately, nomenclature across mHealth RCTs is inconsistent and meta-analyses commonly combine control conditions that differ in potentially important ways. We propose a typology of control condition types in mHealth RCTs. We define 11 control condition types, discuss key dimensions on which they differ, provide a decision tree for selecting and identifying types, and describe the scientific inferences each comparison allows. We propose a five-tier comparison strength gradation along with four simplified categorization schemes. Lastly, we discuss unresolved definitional, ethical, and meta-analytic issues related to the categorization of control conditions in mHealth RCTs.

Identifiers

PMID37775522
PMCPMC10541862

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

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.