CONSORT endorsement improves the quality of reports of randomized clinical trials in dentistry

This study aimed to assess if the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) endorsement by journals is associated with improved completeness of reporting of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) in dentistry.

We searched for RCTs in dentistry indexed/published on PubMed in 2017. Study selection was undertaken by two reviewers independently. Data related to the general characteristics, reports of methodological characteristics, and whether the trial report was published in a journal that endorses the CONSORT Statement were extracted by two reviewers. Descriptive statistics were used to present the data surrounding the general and methodological characteristics of the included studies. We explored differences in the reporting of 12 methodological items between journals that endorsed CONSORT and those that did not.

Five hundred and thirty three reports were included. The main area was implant dentistry with 101 articles (18.9%). Most studies had a parallel design (75.8%), performed at a single center (89.3%) and presenting two groups of comparison (75.6%). The median number of sample size was 50 (interquartile range: 31-90). Six of the 12 methodologic items were reported more often for RCTs published in journals that endorsed CONSORT than in journals that did not.

CONSORT endorsement by journals is linked to improvement in the quality of RCT reports in dentistry.