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Are We Measuring What Really Counts?
Achilleas Thoma1, Yusuf Hassan1, Jenny Santos1
1McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Aesthetic Surgery Journal
|March 16, 2019
Summary
Clinical research design flaws, particularly in aesthetic surgery outcomes, are common. Standardizing outcome reporting using the PICOT format is crucial for credible and conclusive research findings.
Area of Science:
- Medical research methodology
- Aesthetic surgery clinical trials
Background:
- Many clinical research studies suffer from design flaws, impacting their reliability.
- The PICOT (population, intervention, comparative intervention, outcome, time horizon) format is a key tool for designing robust clinical research questions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the adequacy of outcome reporting in aesthetic surgery randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and comparative studies.
- To highlight the need for standardized critical outcome sets in aesthetic surgery research.
Main Methods:
- Review of randomized controlled trials and comparative studies published in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal over the last decade.
- Analysis of the specification and justification of primary outcomes in the selected studies.
Main Results:
- Approximately 50% of reviewed studies specified a primary outcome.
- Only about 40% of studies reported both a primary outcome and the rationale for its selection.
- Inconsistent outcome reporting challenges the credibility of aesthetic surgery research conclusions.
Conclusions:
- There is a significant deficit in the reporting and justification of primary outcomes in aesthetic surgery research.
- Developing critical outcome sets is essential for improving the quality and comparability of future aesthetic surgery studies.
- Standardized outcomes will enable meta-analyses and lead to more conclusive research findings in aesthetic surgery.
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