Content Reporting in Post-Stroke Therapeutic Circuit-Class Exercise Programs in randomized control trials

Therapeutic exercise in the form of group circuit-class training can improve mobility and gait while being cost-effective among patients who survived a stroke. Accurate clinical replication of interventions, especially when they are effective, is needed to advance research and treatment. However, replication is difficult when reporting is not detailed.

The objective of this study was to assess the quality of reporting of interventions within the selected studies using three different scales and to assess the criterion validity between the scales.

Two independent assessors used the CERT, the CONTENT scale, and TIDieR checklist to review the quality of reporting of 16 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) from a recent Cochrane Review. Assessments were done independently before a consensus was reached with an experienced third reviewer mediating any disagreements. Criterion validity between the three quality reporting tools was measured using weighted Cohen's kappa coefficients.

The mean (±SD) for the CERT was 9.31 (±1.66) out of 19 points; the TIDieR checklist was 8.81 (±1.33) out of 12 points; and the CONTENT was 4.82 (±1.22) out of 9 points for the 16 included RCTs. The CERT and CONTENT scale had a fair agreement (k = 0.455, p = 0.064), while both CERT and CONTENT had only slight agreement with TIDieR (k = 0.143, p = 0.267; k = 0.200, p = 0.182, respectively).

The results of this study indicate a lack of reporting from the 16 RCTs on post-stroke therapeutic circuit-class exercise programs. This presents a major barrier to knowledge translation and clinical implementation of effective exercise programs for stroke rehabilitation.