Factors predicting publication of spinal cord injury trials registered on www.ClinicalTrials. gov

Abstract

OBJECTIVE/BACKGROUND:

Treatment options for spinal cord injuries are currently limited, but multiple clinical trials are underway for a variety of interventions, drugs, and devices. The Food and Drug Administration website www.ClinicalTrials.gov catalogues these trials and includes information on the status of the trial, date of initiation and completion, source of funding, and region. This investigation assesses the factors associated with publication and the publication rate of spinal cord injury trials.

DESIGN:

Retrospective analysis of publically available data on www.ClinicalTrials.gov.

METHODS:

The www.ClinicalTrials.gov was queried for all trials on patients with spinal cord injury, and these trials were assessed for status, type of intervention, source of funding, and region. Multiple literature searches were performed on all completed trials to determine publication status.

RESULTS:

There were 626 studies identified concerning the treatment of patients with spinal cord injury, of which 250 (39.9%) were completed. Of these, only 119 (47.6%) were published. There was no significant difference in the rate of publication between regions ( $p>$ 0.16) or by study type ( $p>$ 0.29). However, trials that were funded by the NIH were more likely to be published than trials funded by industry ( $p=$ 0.01).

CONCLUSION:

The current publication rate of spinal cord injury trials is only 47.6%, though this rate is similar to the publication rate for trials in other fields. NIH-funded trials are significantly more likely to become published than industry-funded trials, which could indicate that some trials remain unpublished due to undesirable results. However, it is also likely that many trials on spinal cord injury yield negative results, as treatments are often ineffective.