AJSM Click here for details!
HOME HELP CONTACT US SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
First published on September 12, 2005, doi:10.1177/0363546505278304
This version was published on December 1, 2005
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
33/12/1812    most recent
0363546505278304v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Brophy, R. H.
Right arrow Articles by Marx, R. G.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Brophy, R. H.
Right arrow Articles by Marx, R. G.
Related Collections
Right arrow Epidemiology
The American Journal of Sports Medicine 33:1812-1815 (2005)
© 2005 American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine

An Assessment of the Methodological Quality of Research Published in The American Journal of Sports Medicine

Robert H. Brophy, MD, Michael J. Gardner, MD, Omar Saleem and Robert G. Marx, MD*

From the Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, New York

* Address correspondence to Robert G. Marx, MD, Hospital for Special Surgery, 535 East 70th Street, New York, NY 10021 (e-mail: marxr{at}hss.edu).

Background: Evidence-based medicine has become a popular topic in academic medicine during the past several decades and more recently in orthopaedics and sports medicine.

Hypothesis: Articles published in The American Journal of Sports Medicine have shown an improvement in methodological quality in 2001–2003, compared with 1991–1993.

Study Design: Systematic review.

Methods: All articles published in The American Journal of Sports Medicine during the periods 1991–1993 and 2001–2003 were reviewed and classified by type of study. The use of pertinent methodologies such as prospective data collection, randomization, blinding, and controlled studies was noted for each article. The frequency of each article type and the use of evidence-based techniques were compared across study periods.

Results: Case series and descriptive studies decreased during the study period, from 27.4% to 15.3% (P = .00003) and from 11.9% to 5.6% (P = .001), respectively, of articles published. Prospective cohort studies increased from 4.7% to 14.1% (P = .000005), and randomized, prospective clinical trials increased from 2.7% to 5.9% of articles (P = .04). More studies tested an explicit hypothesis (P = .0000002), used prospective data collection (P = .000003), and used blinding (P = .02), and more studies identified a funding source (P = .004).

Conclusions: Overall, there was a shift toward more prospective and randomized research designs published in The American Journal of Sports Medicine during 2001–2003 compared to 1991–1993, demonstrating an improvement in the methodological quality of published research.

Key Words: evidence-based medicine • evidence-based surgery • sports medicine • research methodology






HOME HELP CONTACT US SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 2005 by the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine.