Table 2.
Classification of linguistic spin in abstracts and main texts of RCTs about AMD.
| Linguistic spin categories | Abstract (N = 96) | Main text (N = 96) | Total | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Results | Conclusion | Results | Discussion | Conclusion | |||
| N*(%)/N** | N*(%)/N** | N*(%)/N** | N*(%)/N** | N*(%)/N** | N*(%)/N** | ||
| 1 | Use of words to reject or explain non-statistically significant results | 2 (2.1)/2 | 0 (0)/0 | 12 (12.5)/15 | 12 (12.5)/12 | 0 (0)/0 | 26 (5.4)/19 |
| 2 | Use of words to claim comparable effectiveness or equivalence despite P > 0.05 | 3 (3.1)/5 | 0 (0)/0 | 6 (6.3)/6 | 1 (1.0)/1 | 2 (2.1)/2 | 12 (2.5)/14 |
| 3 | Use of words to point out the beneficial effect of the treatment investigated | 11 (11.4)/14 | 12 (12.5)/15 | 38 (39.6)/58 | 50 (52)/79 | 29 (30.2)/34 | 140 (29.2)/200 |
| 4 | Use of ‘(statistically) significant/significance' without reporting a P-value or a 95% CI for results showing a beneficial effect of the treatment investigated | 30 (31.3)/45 | 16 (16.7)/16 | 33 (34.4)/63 | 54 (56.3)/145 | 15 (15.6)/18 | 69 (14.4)/287 |
| 5 | Particular focus on results with statistical significance in abstract and or main text | 6 (6.3)/6 | 1 (1.0)/1 | 0 (0)/0 | 0 (0)/0 | 0 (0)/0 | 7 (1.5)/7 |
| 6 | Inconsistency in the significance of the same study results between different sections of the article | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | 5 (1.0)/5 |
| 7 | Other | 1 (1.0)/1 | 5 (5.2)/5 | 5 (5.2)/5 | 33 (34.4)/45 | 7 (7.3)/7 | 51 (10.6)/63 |
*Number of articles in which a linguistic spin category is found. **Total number of linguistic spin examples of a specific category for all included articles (one category of spin can be scored several times in one article). NA, not applicable.