Table 1.
General characteristics of randomized trials reporting a flow diagram indexed in PubMed from July to December 2009 (n = 263)
| Trial design | Parallel (n = 236) |
Other * (n = 27) |
|---|---|---|
| Journal type | ||
| Specialty | 144 (61%) | 11 (41%) |
| General medical | 92 (39%) | 16 (59% |
| Funding | ||
| Solely industry | 40 (17%) | 1 (4%) |
| Part industry | 43 (18%) | 2 (7%) |
| Non industry | 126 (53%) | 20 (74%) |
| None | 5 (2%) | 2 (7%) |
| Unknown | 22 (9%) | 2 (7%) |
| CONSORT endorsing journal | ||
| Yes | 210 (89%) | 27 (100%) |
| No | 26 (11%) | 0 (0%) |
| Top 5 common specialty fields | ||
| Paediatrics 34 (14%) | Paediatrics 10 (34%) | |
| Cardiology 29 (12%) | Cardiology 2 (7%) | |
| Psychiatry 20 (9%) | Psychiatry 2 (7%) | |
| Infectious diseases 20 (9%) | Infectious diseases 2 (7%) | |
| Oncology 17 (7%) | Oncology 1 (3%) | |
| Intervention | ||
| Drug | 116 (49%) | 6 (22%) |
| Surgery/procedure | 46 (20%) | 3 (11%) |
| Counselling/lifestyle | 64 (27%) | 15 (56%) |
| Equipment | 10 (4%) | 3 (11%) |
| Study centres | ||
| Single | 72 (31%) | 4 (15%) |
| Multiple | 137 (58%) | 20 (74%) |
| Unclear | 27 (11%) | 3 (11%) |
| Number of study groups | ||
| 2 | 187 (79%) | 20 (74%) |
| 3 | 36 (15%) | 2 (7%) |
| 4 | 11 (5%) | 3 (11%) |
| > 4 | 2 (1%) | 2 (7%) |
| Sample size | ||
| Median (IQR) | 213 (101 to 476) | 529 (130 to 2243) † |
| 10 to 90 percentile | 50 to 1217 | 56 to 61280 |
* Cluster n = 16; Crossover n = 4; Factorial n = 4; Split Body n = 3
† Sample size not reported for 1 cluster trial