Quality Assessment of Reports of Randomized Controlled Trials Published in Chinese in Field of Non-small Cell Lung Cancer in China

Objective  To explore the reporting quality and potential problems of randomized controlledtrials(RCT) published in Chinese in the field of non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC) by CONSORTStatement.

Methods  CBM, CNKI, VIP, Wanfang database were systematically searched to identify RCTsof NSCLC. The deadline of the searching was June 2013. Date extraction table was designed according toCONSORT-2010 Statement, and the data were input into Excel 2007. Statistical analysis was performedusing SPSS19.0.

Results  A total of 10421 references were identified, and 2752 RCTs were includedaccording to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The assessment results showed that the reporting qualityof included studies had some problems. 40.54% items had a full report rate at ≤30%. Stratified analysisshowed that more than 50% items of CONSORT were associated with the year of publication (<2010 vs. ≥2010), the number of affiliations (1 vs. ≥2), journals indexed (CSCD vs. non CSCD), the median numberof paper page (<2 vs. ≥2), and fund (fund vs. non-funded) (P<0.05), moreover, the effect of paper page wasthe most obvious(P<0.00001).

Conclusion  The NSCLC RCT published in Chinese academic journals areinadequately reported, especially in the description of methods and presentation of results. The number ofunits, CONSORT (2010) published, the paper pages and financial support affect the quality of the reports. TheCONSORT statement should be complied in future studies to enhance the quality of NSCLC RCT.