Table 2 Presence of distributional assessments of the primary outcome in 264 RCTs
From: Estimates of the mean difference in orthopaedic randomized trials: obligatory yet obscure
| The category of distribution presentation on the primary outcome data | Numbera of RCTs (%) |
|---|---|
| Only mean (SD) or median (IQR) or range provided | 209 (79 %) |
| Reported one or more of the assessments categorized as below | 58 (16 %) |
| Categories | 19 (7 %) |
| Box-plots | 19 (7 %) |
| Patient-level change for all patients | 2 (1 %) |
| Number of observations at ceiling minimum or maximum value of the PROM | 2 (1 %) |
| Number of ‘outliers’ | 8 (3 %) |
| Number of ‘responders’ | 3 (1 %) |
| Number of patients ‘gained’ MIC or MDC | 3 (1 %) |
| Scatter plot of observations | 1 (0.4 %) |