Level of evidence in four selected rehabilitation journals

To investigate the methodologic quality and level of evidence of publications in major peer-reviewed general rehabilitation journals (Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation [APMR], American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation [AJPMR], Clinical Rehabilitation [CR], and Physical Therapy [PT]).

Descriptive, comparative.

All the articles published in AJPMR, APMR, CR, and PT between January 2005 and December 2009 were investigated. Type of study and level of evidence were recorded for all articles. Selection and assessment of articles were based on the title and abstract by 2 independent raters.

The most frequently published reports were randomized controlled trials (12.7%), followed by cross-sectional studies (12.1%), case reports/case series (10.3%), validation studies (9.3%), cohort studies (8.9%), clinical trials (7.5%), case-control studies (6.8%), and other study types (32.4%). When the articles were classified according to their level of evidence, level I studies most frequently appeared in CR (29.1%), followed by PT (11.0%), APMR (10.5%), and AJPMR (7.1%). Most of the meta-analyses (10) were in APMR, and there were none in AJPMR.

Randomized controlled trials and meta-analyses form only a small proportion of articles published in the current rehabilitation literature. The numbers of randomized controlled trials and meta-analysis are comparable with those in other fields.