50 years of randomised controlled trials published in the journal Physiotherapy: a review 1967 to 2017

Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) are described as the gold standard of investigative clinical research. Evidence based practice is critical to the physiotherapy profession, and it is therefore important to explore the research underpinning practice by examining published RCTs.

The main aims of this review were to profile the quantity and quality of RCTs published in the journal Physiotherapy over the past 50 years.

Physiotherapy journal, hand searched (1967 to 1987) and electronically (1988 to 2017).

Studies identified as RCTs.

Quality assessed via PEDRO criteria.

120 RCTs were identified from January 1967 to January 2017. The frequency of RCTs published has increased steadily and the UK was the most common source of RCTs, but the prevalence of non-UK based trials is increasing. The quality of RCTs improved steadily over the decades, with a mean PEDro score of 6.9 in the most recent decade (2017 to 2008), indicative of 'high quality'. The mean number of trial participants was 60 and the most commonly evaluated area was musculoskeletal physiotherapy.

RCTs were not evaluated against CONSORT criteria.

Frequency of publication of RCTs in the journal Physiotherapy has increased over this time, mirroring trends in the wider medical literature. This highlights the predominance of some areas of research such as musculoskeletal and exercise-based research while other prominent areas such as neurology appear to be less researched.