Methodological Issues in Rehabilitation Research: A Scoping Review.

Area of Science:

• Rehabilitation research methodology
• Evidence-based practice in allied health

Background:

• Methodological rigor is essential for reliable rehabilitation research.
• Identifying and addressing methodological challenges is key to advancing the field.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically identify, synthesize, and categorize methodological issues in rehabilitation research.
• To provide a comprehensive overview of common challenges faced in rehabilitation studies.

Main Methods:

• A comprehensive scoping review was performed.
• Multiple databases (MEDLINE, Cochrane, EMBASE, Web of Science, Scopus, PEDro, Google Scholar) were searched up to August 2018.
• Included publications describing methodological issues in multimodal rehabilitation research.

Main Results:

• Seventy-one publications were analyzed, revealing numerous methodological and reporting issues.
• Specific issues include problematic randomized controlled trials (32%), undefined core outcome sets (28%), and poor intervention descriptions (22%).
• Generic issues encompass data description (31%) and authors' methodological training (7%).

Conclusions:

• Methodological and reporting deficiencies can compromise the quality of evidence in rehabilitation.
• Future steps should involve meta-epidemiologic studies to assess impact and developing checklists to enhance trial conduct and reporting.