Participants in clinical trials may exit the study prior to having their results collated; in this case, what do we do with their results?
This is the nineteenth blog in a series of 36 blogs explaining 36 key concepts we need to be able to understand to think critically about treatment claims.
People in treatment comparisons who are not followed up to the end of the study may have worse outcomes than those who are followed up. For example, they may have dropped out because the treatment was not working or because of side effects. If those people are excluded, the findings of the study may be misleading.
This blog critically appraises a randomized controlled trial looking at the effectiveness of eccentric exercises in combination with PRP injections versus saline injection.
Is this study valid? Can I trust this study’s methods and design? Can I apply the results of this study to other contexts? Learn more about internal and external validity in research to help you answer these questions when you next look at a paper.
This blog is a critical appraisal of a randomized controlled trial assessing the effectiveness of in-hospital physiotherapy for improving physical activity level after lung cancer surgery.
A well-designed cohort study can provide powerful results. This blog introduces prospective and retrospective cohort studies, discussing the advantages, disadvantages and use of these type of study designs.
This blog is a critical appraisal of a randomized controlled trial examining the effectiveness of different exercises and stretching physiotherapy on pain and movement in patellofemoral pain syndrome.
This blog critically appraises a randomized controlled trial looking at the effectiveness of expiratory muscle training on the pulmonary function of patients with high spinal cord injury.
In this blog, Julie Duncan Millar, PhD Student and Physiotherapist, reflects on the difficulties of comparing and sharing upper limb rehabilitation trial data and proposes a condensed toolkit of measures recommended for researchers to use in future trials.
Saul Crandon provides an overview of Case-control and Cohort studies: what are they, how are they different, and what are the pros and cons you need to consider in each study design.
This is the tenth in a series of 34 blogs explaining 34 key concepts we need to be able to understand to think critically about treatment claims.
This blog explains that hope can be a good thing, but sometimes people in need or desperation hope that treatments will work and assume they cannot do any harm. Similarly, fear can lead people to use treatments that may not work and can cause harm. As a result, they may waste time and money on treatments that have never been shown to be useful, or may actually cause harm.
This blog takes a detailed look at the issue of attrition bias (bias that can arise when participants drop out of a study). It also describes measures that can be taken by researchers to minimize this bias (including different types of statistical analyses).
Confused about Hazard Ratios and their confidence intervals? This blog provides a handy tutorial.
This post talks about the real meaning of p-value. No fancy words. No complicated definitions. Only simple notions included.
Mechanical neck pain is prevalent in the general population. Adjusting the spine (spinal manipulative therapy) is complex and controversial, largely based on the Chiropractic concept of a joint “subluxation”. This blog is a critical appraisal of a study examining the acute effects of a single and multiple level thoracic manipulation on chronic mechanical neck pain.