Bralić Nensi, Puljak Livia, Ćaćić Barbara, Borges do Nascimento Israel Junior, Šimundić Munitić Marija, Krnić Martinić Marina, Škoprc Tonia, Babić Andrija, Zekan Jelena, Vukičević Ivana, Poklepović Peričić Tina
Department of Research in Biomedicine and Health, University of Split School of Medicine, Split, Croatia.
Center for Evidence-Based Medicine and Healthcare, Catholic University of Croatia, Zagreb, Croatia.
PLoS One. 2025 Jul 14;20(7):e0328271. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0328271. eCollection 2025.
Well-reported scientific abstracts are essential as they provide a concise summary of key research findings. Our study aimed to assess the completeness of reporting in abstracts of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in dental medicine using the CONSORT for Abstracts (CONSORT-A) checklist.
This was a methodological cross-sectional study. We searched PubMed for RCTs published between August 2015 and August 2023 in Q1 journals from the "Dentistry, Oral Surgery & Medicine" category of the Journal Citation Reports. Two authors independently screened the records and assessed their adherence to 15 CONSORT-A items (items Authors and Recruitment were not assessed) for each abstract. All items were scored with '1' if reported adequately (in line with CONSORT-A), '0' if reported inadequately, and '0.5' if the reporting was partially adequate. We calculated each abstract's adherence (percentage) rate and median adherence across all abstracts. The adherence to CONSORT-A items was determined by dividing the number of articles that reported each item adequately by the total number of articles included. We also conducted a Jonckheere-Terpstra trend test to assess the temporal trend.
The search resulted in 1691 records, of which 1564 were eligible for inclusion. We analyzed a random sample of 400 abstracts. Median adherence to CONSORT-A overall was 43.3% (95% CI 43.3 to 43.3). Items with the highest adherence scores were 'Conclusions', 'Objective', and 'Interventions', while 'Funding', 'Randomization', and 'Harms' had the lowest adherence scores. Median adherence to CONSORT-A has not improved over time (p = 0.342). For each analyzed year, mean adherence to CONSORT-A was around 40%.
Reporting in abstracts of RCTs in dental medicine was suboptimal, and there was no improvement from 2015 to 2023. Improved guideline enforcement and author education are vital for enhancing abstract reporting quality and transparency.
撰写良好的科学摘要至关重要，因为它们提供了关键研究结果的简明总结。我们的研究旨在使用摘要报告规范（CONSORT-A）清单评估牙科医学中随机对照试验（RCT）摘要的报告完整性。
这是一项方法学横断面研究。我们在PubMed中检索了2015年8月至2023年8月期间发表在《期刊引证报告》“牙科、口腔外科与医学”类别的Q1期刊上的随机对照试验。两位作者独立筛选记录，并评估每个摘要对15项CONSORT-A项目（未评估“作者”和“招募”项目）的依从性。如果报告充分（符合CONSORT-A），所有项目得分为“1”；如果报告不充分，得分为“0”；如果报告部分充分，得分为“0.5”。我们计算了每个摘要的依从率（百分比）以及所有摘要的中位依从率。对CONSORT-A项目的依从性通过将充分报告每个项目的文章数量除以纳入的文章总数来确定。我们还进行了Jonckheere-Terpstra趋势检验以评估时间趋势。
检索结果为1691条记录，其中1564条符合纳入条件。我们分析了400篇摘要的随机样本。CONSORT-A总体中位依从率为43.3%（95%CI 43.3至43.3）。依从性得分最高的项目是“结论”、“目的”和“干预措施”，而“资金”、“随机化”和“危害”的依从性得分最低。CONSORT-A的中位依从性随时间没有提高（p = 0.342）。对于每个分析年份，CONSORT-A的平均依从率约为40%。
牙科医学中随机对照试验摘要的报告情况不理想，2015年至2023年期间没有改善。加强指南执行和作者教育对于提高摘要报告质量和透明度至关重要。
