Medical Research Council

About: Medical Research Council is a government organization based out in London, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Malaria. The organization has 16430 authors who have published 19150 publications receiving 1475494 citations.

Detection of Intermodal Numerical Correspondences by Human Infants

Abstract: Infants prefer to look at an array of objects that corresponds in number to a sequence of sounds. In doing so, infants disregard the modality (visual or auditory) and type (object or event) of items presented. This finding indicates that infants possess a mechanism that enables them to obtain information about number.

Value of Flow Diagrams in Reports of Randomized Controlled Trials

Abstract: ContextDiagrams of the flow of participants through a clinical trial are recommended in the Consolidated Standards for Reporting of Trials (CONSORT) statement, but it is unclear whether such flow diagrams improve the quality of trial reports.ObjectiveTo examine the information contributed by flow diagrams and the completeness of reporting overall in reports of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published in 5 general and internal medicine journals.Design and SettingAnalysis of 270 reports of RCTs published in 1998 in the Annals of Internal Medicine (AIM; n = 19), BMJ (n = 42), JAMA (n = 45), The Lancet (n = 81), and The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM; n = 83).Main Outcome MeasuresProportion of reports that included a flow diagram, information provided in flow diagrams, and completeness of reporting about flow of participants overall in flow diagrams or text.ResultsA total of 139 reports (51.5%) of RCTs included a flow diagram, but this varied widely among journals (AIM, 21.0%; BMJ, 38.1%; JAMA, 80.0%; The Lancet, 93.8%; and NEJM, 8.4%). Diagrams generally provided useful information, but only 73 (52.5%) included the number of participants who received allocated interventions and only 32 (23.0%) included the number of participants included in the analysis. In logistic regression analysis, overall completeness of reporting about flow of study participants was associated with publication of a flow diagram.ConclusionsFlow diagrams are associated with improved quality of reporting of randomized controlled trials. However, the structure of current flow diagrams is less than ideal. We propose a revised flow diagram that includes all important counts through the stages of parallel group trials.