Table 3.
Key SPIRIT 2013 statement resultsa
| Reported use of the SPIRIT guidelines | Number of RCT protocols |
| Yes | 253 (35%) |
| No | 469 (65%) |
| Reported using the SPIRIT guidelines and reported all aspects of item 18b (18b(i) and 18b(ii) and/or 18b(iii)) – “Plans to promote participant retention and complete follow-up, including list of any outcome data to be collected for participants who discontinue or deviate from intervention protocols” ([14]:3) | |
| Yes | 24 protocols out of the 253 that reported using SPIRIT (9.5%) |
| No | 229 (90.5%) |
| Reported using the SPIRIT guidelines (n = 253) and reported item 18b(i) “Plans to promote participant retention” | Number of RCT protocols |
| Yes | 105 protocols out of the 253 that reported using SPIRIT (41.5%) |
| No | 148 protocols (58.5%) |
| RCT protocol SPIRIT item 18b figures, regardless of reporting SPIRIT guidelines in the protocol, i.e. information mapped to SPIRIT item 18b | |
| Reported all aspects of item 18b (18b(i) and 18b(ii) and/or 18b(iii))—“Plans to promote participant retention and complete follow-up, including list of any outcome data to be collected for participants who discontinue or deviate from intervention protocols” ([14]:3) | Number of protocols |
| Yes | 53 protocols out of the total (n = 722) (7.3%) |
| No | 669 protocols (92.7%) |
| Reported item 18b(i) “Plans to promote participant retention" (out of the total 722 RCT protocols) | |
| Yes | 266 (36.8%) |
| No | 456 (63.2%) |
aExcludes pilot and feasibility protocol data (See Supplementary File 3 for a full breakdown of SPIRIT results)