Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40776705›Full record

ArticleAfrican journal of primary health care & family medicine2025

Clinical trial methods for family medicine and primary care.

Robert Mash, Bolatito B Fatusin, Edith Madela-Mntla, Christopher Butler

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in African journal of primary health care & family medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–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

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Building the next generation of family medicine and primary health care researchers in Africa.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2025
    Article
  2. Real-world evidence for primary care: A primer on observational research.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2025
    Article
  3. Clinical trial capacity in African primary care: Advancing contextualised implementation.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2025
    Article
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.

Robert MashDivision of Family Medicine and Primary Care, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town. rm@sun.ac.za.
Bolatito B Fatusin
Edith Madela-Mntla
Christopher Butler

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

This article outlines the essential features of clinical trials for doctoral or early career researchers. The World Health Organization has recently emphasised the need for higher quality clinical trials, more trials from low- and middle-income countries, as well as primary care, more engagement with patients and communities and adoption of innovative trial designs. In sub-Saharan Africa, primary care researchers need to move beyond quasi-experimental and before-and-after designs to conduct randomised clinical trials. The article describes the key methodological requirements of a randomised controlled trial: the hypothesis, design, setting, recruitment, randomisation, sample size, intervention, assessment, results, interpretation and extrapolation. We also discuss the aspects of ethical and well-organised trials that respect study participants, engage with collaborative processes, have appropriate governance and transparent dissemination of results. Finally, we outline innovative designs such as step-wedge, clinical trial networks and adaptive platform designs.

Indexed as

Family PracticePrimary Health CareRandomized Controlled Trials as TopicResearch DesignAfrica South of the SaharaHumansNon-Randomized Controlled Trials as TopicPatient Selectionadaptive platform designclinical trialsexperimental studiesmethodologymethodsprimary care.randomised controlled trialstudy design

Identifiers

PMID40776705
PMCPMC12339886

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

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.