Critical appraisal and positive-outcome bias in case reports published in brazilian dental journals
Carregando...
Data
2006
Título da Revista
ISSN da Revista
Título de Volume
Editor
Resumo
The aim of this study was to carry out a critical appraisal to detect the occurrence of publication bias, specifically
positive-outcome bias, in Brazilian dental journals. A convenience sample of twenty-eight dental journals published in Brazil
between 1994 and 2003 was selected (564 issues containing 5,453 articles). Each article was classified according to methodologi-
cal design; 1,064 were classified as case reports. A simple random sample of 435 articles comprised the final study sample and
was submitted to a critical appraisal by previously trained raters. Although a great part of case reports achieve proper structural
aspects, most authors did not consider important aspects that could help the decision making process, such as discussion of alter-
native approaches, limitation of the performed procedures, lack of long-term clinical follow-up, possible variations in treatment
outcome, and failure to discuss limitations of study design. In addition, unanimous reports of successful outcomes of clinical
interventions strongly suggest that publication of case reports was influenced by positive outcome bias, which may influence
readers’ clinical decision making process.
Descrição
Palavras-chave
Publication, Publication, Case report, Publication bias
Citação
OLIVEIRA, Geraido J. ; LELES, Claudio R. Critical appraisal and positive-outcome bias in case reports published in brazilian dental journals. Journal of Dental Education, Washington, v. 70, n. 8, p. 869-874, 2006.