Table 3.
Methods terms used in treatment questions by study participants ranked by sensitivity
| Qualifier terms used in searches and removed before submission to clinical queries | Frequency (n=62) | Sensitivity (%) | Specificity (%) | Precision (%) |
| clinical queries Treatment filter (randomized controlled trial[Publication Type] OR (randomized[Title/Abstract] AND controlled[Title/Abstract] AND trial[Title/Abstract])) | 93 | 97 | 54 | |
| (clinical[Title/Abstract] AND trial[Title/Abstract]). OR clinical trials[MeSH Terms] OR clinical trial[Publication Type] OR random*[Title/Abstract]. OR random allocation[MeSH Terms] OR therapeutic use[MeSH Subheading] | 1 | 98.9 | 78.8 | 13.5 |
| Randomized controlled trial | 1 | 95.5 | 95.5 | 41.4 |
| Treatment | 7 | 89.8 | 59.7 | 6.9 |
| Management or treatment | 1 | 89.8 | 59.7 | 6.9 |
| Therapy | 2 | 75.5 | 68.5 | 7.4 |
| Limits for aged | 1 | 70.8 | 65.9 | 6.5 |
| Adults, placebo | 1 | 31.7 | 99.1 | 54.7 |
| Randomized control trial | 1 | 23.5 | 99.0 | 45.1 |
| Treatment + current | 1 | 3.3 | 97.8 | 4.7 |
| review of randomized controlled trials | 1 | 0.8 | 98.8 | 2.2 |
| Limits: randomized controlled trials | 1 | 0.7 | 100 | 47.8 |
| Limit to meta-analysis | 1 | 0 | 100 | 0 |
The first entry is the actual Clinical Queries specific therapy search filter. Values were determined by querying the Clinical Hedges Database.