Is There Truly "No Significant Difference"?: Underpowered Randomized Controlled Trials in the Orthopaedic Literature

Conclusions: If an RCT lacks adequate statistical power to identify a clinically meaningful absence of a difference between groups, there is an unacceptable risk of inappropriately failing to reject the null hypothesis. The present study found that a sizable proportion of RCTs in orthopaedic surgery in which the null hypothesis is rejected are inadequately powered. Researchers should consider this when designing clinical trials, and journal editors and reviewers should be wary of underpowered RCTs when considering manuscripts for publication.

http://jbjs.org/cgi/content/short/97/24/2068?rss=1

Source: The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery - December 16, 2015 Category: Orthopaedics Authors: Abdullah, L., Davis, D. E., Fabricant, P. D., Baldwin, K., Namdari, S. Tags: The Orthopaedic Forum Source Type: research