Majority of sports medicine trials lack essential research details, hindering progress
The study looked at how clinical trials in sports medicine and orthopaedics are reported. They found that while most trials mention important factors like randomisation and blinding, many crucial details are often missing. Only a small percentage of trials justified the expected effect size or provided information on randomisation type and concealed allocation. Most trials did report participants' sex/gender and inclusion/exclusion criteria. However, very few trials were pre-registered or deposited data in open repositories. The results suggest that there is room for improvement in how clinical trials in sports medicine and orthopaedics are reported, with a need for greater adoption of open science practices.