Reporting Completeness of Intensity-, Dose-, and Dosage-Related Items in Active Pediatric Upper Limb Neurorehabilitation Trials: A Systematic Review

Objective

To analyze the reporting completeness of the TIDieR items 8-12, in particular intensity, dose, and dosage, in active pediatric upper limb neurorehabilitation trials.

Data Sources

We searched PubMed Central, Scopus, CINAHL, OTseeker, and Web of Science for eligible publications.

Study Selection

We included publications analyzing active pediatric upper limb neurorehabilitation interventions and assessed the reporting completeness of 11 items for each intervention and control group.

Data Extraction

Two raters independently screened titles and abstracts and selected the publications using the RYYAN platform. We unblinded the results after the raters had completed their selection and resolved the disagreements by discussion. We used the same procedures to review the full texts.

Data Synthesis

We included 52 randomized controlled trials with 65 intervention and 48 control groups. Authors did not report all 11 items in any of the study groups. The overall reporting completeness varied between 1% (intensity) to 95% (length of the intervention). The reporting completeness of the TIDieR items ranged from 2% (modifications) to 64% (when and how much). We found no significant differences in the reporting completeness between the intervention and control groups.

Conclusions

Information essential for dose-response calculations is often missing in randomized controlled trials of pediatric upper limb neurorehabilitation interventions. Reporting completeness should be improved, and new measures to accurately quantify intensity should be discussed and developed.