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Reporting Completeness of Intensity-, Dose-, and Dosage-Related Items in Active Pediatric Upper Limb
Gaizka Goikoetxea-Sotelo1, Hubertus J A van Hedel2
1Swiss Children's Rehab, University Children's Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich, Affoltern am Albis, Switzerland; Children's Research Center, University Children's Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; Department of Health Sciences and Technology, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Insights
Reporting completeness for key intervention details like intensity and dose is lacking in pediatric neurorehabilitation trials. Improving the reporting of these elements is crucial for accurate dose-response calculations in research.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Rehabilitation Medicine
- Clinical Trials
Background:
- Pediatric upper limb neurorehabilitation trials are vital for improving motor function.
- The Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TIDieR) checklist aims to standardize intervention reporting.
- Incomplete reporting hinders the understanding and replication of interventions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the reporting completeness of specific TIDieR items (8-12), focusing on intensity, dose, and dosage.
- To evaluate the reporting of these critical elements in active pediatric upper limb neurorehabilitation trials.
Main Methods:
- A systematic search was conducted across multiple databases (PubMed Central, Scopus, CINAHL, OTseeker, Web of Science).
- 52 randomized controlled trials involving pediatric upper limb neurorehabilitation were included.
- Reporting completeness of 11 TIDieR items was assessed for intervention and control groups by two independent raters.
Main Results:
- No study reported all 11 TIDieR items completely across all groups.
- Reporting completeness varied widely, from 1% for intensity to 95% for intervention length.
- Specific TIDieR items showed low completeness, e.g., modifications (2%) and how much (64%).
Conclusions:
- Essential information for dose-response calculations is frequently missing in pediatric neurorehabilitation RCTs.
- There is a significant need to enhance the reporting completeness of intervention details, particularly intensity and dosage.
- Development of new measures for quantifying intervention intensity is recommended.
Objective:
To analyze the reporting completeness of the TIDieR items 8-12, in particular intensity, dose, and dosage, in active pediatric upper limb neurorehabilitation trials.
Data Sources:
We searched PubMed Central, Scopus, CINAHL, OTseeker, and Web of Science for eligible publications.
Study Selection:
We included publications analyzing active pediatric upper limb neurorehabilitation interventions and assessed the reporting completeness of 11 items for each intervention and control group.
Data Extraction:
Two raters independently screened titles and abstracts and selected the publications using the RYYAN platform. We unblinded the results after the raters had completed their selection and resolved the disagreements by discussion. We used the same procedures to review the full texts.
Data Synthesis:
We included 52 randomized controlled trials with 65 intervention and 48 control groups. Authors did not report all 11 items in any of the study groups. The overall reporting completeness varied between 1% (intensity) to 95% (length of the intervention). The reporting completeness of the TIDieR items ranged from 2% (modifications) to 64% (when and how much). We found no significant differences in the reporting completeness between the intervention and control groups.
Conclusions:
Information essential for dose-response calculations is often missing in randomized controlled trials of pediatric upper limb neurorehabilitation interventions. Reporting completeness should be improved, and new measures to accurately quantify intensity should be discussed and developed.
