Adherence to published standards of reporting - A comparison of placebo-controlled trials published in English or German

Context.-Although standards of reporting randomized controlled trials are well established internationally, essential study elements continue to be omitted, which hampers interpretation and systematic review of randomized controlled trials. Objective.-To identify deficiencies in the quality of reporting of placebo-controlled randomized trials published in German or English. Design.-Observational study comparing 32 German- and 89 English-language reports of placebo-controlled trials with parallel design, published by the same group of authors between 1985 and 1994. Main Outcome Measure.-High reporting quality,defined as adherence to published standards and measured by an 18-item scale based on 2 standard guidelines. Results.-The mean quality score was 8.4 (SD, 3.0; range, 1-16) of 18. The difference of the mean quality scores between English-language reports compared with German-language reports was small (0.27; 95% confidence interval, -0.97 to 1,52), More articles reported clinical aspects than trial methods or statistics. Conclusion.-There is room for improvement in the reporting of placebo-controlled randomized trials for both English and German reports.