Analysis of Reference Practices among Practicing Orthopaedicians in India

Chellamuthu, Girinivasan; Muthu, Sathish

doi:10.1007/s43465-021-00350-4

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Many readers may not have heard of spin. A survey by ORG showed that only 3% of participants were aware of spin [11]. The LOC of RCTs proposed by us based on the spin in abstracts will be an initiative to enlighten the readers on this entity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Only 50% of randomized trials have high level of confidence in arthroscopy and sports medicine”—a spin-based assessment

Chellamuthu

Muthu

Damodaran

et al. 2021

Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc

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PurposePioneering works on the quality appraisal of RCTs have recognized and addressed most of the issues that affect the RCT quality but some issues such as “Writers’ bias” or “Spin” are yet to be sorted out. Spin, particularly in the abstracts, is a potential source of deception to the readers. The purpose of this study is to grade the RCTs of arthroscopy and sports medicine based on a spin in their abstracts, analyze the prevalence of spin, and explore methods to remove spin. Methods250 recent RCTs from the top 5 arthroscopy and sports medicine journals were selected. Baseline data of the articles were collected. Consort Adherence Score (CAS) was calculated. The abstracts of the RCTs were graded using the Level Of Confidence (LOC) grading tool developed by the Orthopaedic Research Group. The association of the spin grade with other characteristics of the articles was analyzed. ResultsThe median CAS for the included studies was 9 (IQR 8–10). It was found that only 49.6% (n = 124) articles had high LOC with no or one non‐critical spin in the abstract. 20.8% (n = 52) had Moderate LOC with more than one non‐critical spin. 19.6% (n = 49) had at least one critical spin and 10% (n = 25) had more than one critical flaw making their results have Low and Critically Low LOC, respectively. Of the ten variables analyzed in multivariate regression analysis, it was found that CAS was the only significant factor that determines the level of confidence in the abstract of RCTs ConclusionSpin is prevalent in abstracts of sports medicine and arthroscopy journals with 50.4% having some form of spin. Grading the LOC of the RCTs based on spin is the necessity of the day for the readers. Only 49.6% of the RCTs had high LOC. Objective structuring of the abstracts would help eliminate spin in the future. Level of evidenceLevel 1.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%