Comparison of the Quality of Pediatric Randomized Controlled Trials Published in Both Nursing and Medical Journals: Adherence to the CONSORT Statement.

BACKGROUND: Nursing care should be based on scientific evidence. However, studies must be performed rigorously with accurate reporting for their findings to be applicable to practice. Since the body of scientific nursing literature is broad, the quality and validity of its findings should be regularly controlled and verified to ensure their application and their practical impact.

PURPOSE: To compare reporting quality of pediatric randomized controlled trial (RCT) articles in nursing and medical journals.

METHODS: Randomly selected articles were reviewed and scored to assess the number of CONSORT items that were adequately reported, generating a CONSORT score. The CONSORT scores for 28 items were compared between the two journal types.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: The CONSORT scores by journal type were not significantly different: (19.2 [16.2; 22] for medical journals and 19.5 [16.1; 21.5] for nursing journals, p = .77). The reporting of CONSORT items was poor for both journal types. However, there were two significant differences: item 19 (Declaration of all important harm or unintended effects, p = .0006) and item 23 (Registration number of the study, p = .0003), were reported more often in medical journals. The adherence of journals to the CONSORT statement and large sample size was associated with better quality of the reporting of studies.

CONCLUSIONS: Based on reporting quality, nursing studies have the same scientific credibility and rigor as medical studies in the pediatric field.

LINKING EVIDENCE TO ACTION: The findings of this study could help researchers improve the reporting of their studies and highlight the importance of reporting quality for future knowledge transfer and practical use. The quality of research and its reporting is necessary to improve knowledge transfer into practice.