Abstracts Reporting of Randomized Controlled Trials in Ten Highest-ranking Nursing Journals: Improvement in the Quality Since CONSORT Extension for Abstracts

Background: When evaluating randomized controlled trials(RCTs), nurses usually refer to the abstracts to make an initial assessment of the results and to determine whether a full-text review is required. Aims: To determine whether the publication of Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) for abstracts resulted in an improvement in the abstracts report of nursing RCTs. Methods: This research was a cross-sectional study. Web of Science was searched. 200 RCTs were randomly selected from ten high-impact nursing journals. CONSORT-A checklist was used to assess abstracts. Total score on checklists, comparison on total scores between two periods, and effect factors were analyzed. Results: Mean overall adherence across all abstracts was 8.85±2.18 which significantly improved with the time span. The most poorly reported items were ‘harms’, ‘outcomes in method’, and ‘method of blinding’ which appeared in 0, 8.5% and 16.5% of abstracts, respectively. Recent year of publication(P=0.014), Journal impact factor (P=0.000), multiple center trial (P=0.000), and structured abstract (P=0.008) were associated significantly with a high reporting quality. Conclusions: Although not defined all of abstracts in nursing area, our sample reflect the general trend that there was limited adherence to the CONSORT-A among abstracts in nursing literature. It is necessary to promote and actively apply the CONSORT-A guideline.