Research in occupational therapy is necessary for the validation of therapeutic interventions. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) control against potentially confounding variables and provide validating evidence, if properly reported. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the quality of reporting RCTs in occupational therapy and speech therapy by use of an expansion of the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) statement. The Nelson—Moberg—Norton Expanded CONSORT Instrument (NMNECI) was used to evaluate 15 occupational therapy RCTs and 15 speech therapy RCTs. After the principal investigator evaluated all 30 articles, a masked research assistant evaluated 16 randomly selected RCTs to test for inter-rater reliability. An intraclass correlation coefficient of .93 confirmed overall inter-rater agreement. On average, the 30 articles were consistent with 119.5 NMNECI sub-items (SD = 25.48) of the 212 possible sub-items. Occupational therapy RCTs (mean = 130.07, SD = 20.21) were more consistent with the CONSORT statement than speech therapy RCTs (mean = 108.93, SD = 26.40), t(28) = 2.46, p = .02. RCTs in occupational therapy and other allied health professions could benefit from using the CONSORT statement as a tool for reporting future research studies.
References marked with an asterisk indicate the 30 RCTs analyzed in this study.
2.
AltmanD. G.SchulzK. F.MoherD.EggerM.DavidoffF.ElbourneD.. (2001). The revised CONSORT statement for reporting randomized trials: Explanation and elaboration. Annals of Internal Medicine, 134, 663–694.
3.
American Occupational Therapy Association. (1998). Standards of practice for occupational therapy. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 52, 866–869.
4.
American Occupational Therapy Association. (1999). Standards for continuing competence. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 53, 599–600.
5.
American Occupational Therapy Association. (2000). Occupational therapy code of ethics. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 54, 614–616.
6.
BaskettJ. J.BroadJ. B.ReekieG.HockingC.GreenG. (1999). Shared responsibility for ongoing rehabilitation: A new approach to home-based therapy after stroke. Clinical Rehabilitation, 13, 23–33.
7.
BendstrupK. E.IngemannJ. J.HolmS.BengtssonB. (1997). Out-patient rehabilitation improves activities of daily living, quality of life and exercise tolerance in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The European Respiratory Journal, 10, 2801–2806.
8.
BuchainP. C.VizzottoA. D. B.NetoHenna J.ElkisH. (2003). Randomized controlled trial of occupational therapy in patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia. Revista Brasileira de Psiquiatria, 25, 26–30.
9.
ChristensenO. M.KunovA.HansenF. F.ChristiansenT. C.KrasheninnikoffM. (2001). Occupational therapy and Colles' fracture. International Orthopaedics, 25, 43–45.
10.
ClemsonL.CummingR. G.KendigH.SwannM.HeardR.TaylorK. (2004). The effectiveness of a community-based program for reducing the incidence of falls in the elderly: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 52, 1487–1494.
11.
CloseJ.EllisM.HooperR.GlucksmanE.JacksonS.SwiftC. (1999). Prevention of falls in the elderly trial (PROFET): A randomised controlled trial. Lancet, 353, 93–97.
12.
DoesborghS. J. C.van de Sandt-KoendermanM. W. E.DippelD. W. J.van HarskampF.KoudstaalP. J.Visch-BrinkE. G. (2004). Effects of semantic treatment on verbal communication and linguistic processing in aphasia after stroke: A randomized controlled trial. Stroke, 35, 141–146.
13.
EliasL. C.MarturanoE. M.MottaA. M.GiurlaniA. G. (2003). Treating boys with low school achievement and behavior problems: Comparison of two kinds of intervention. Psychological Reports, 92, 105–116.
14.
EliasziwM.YoungS. L.WoodburyM. G.Fryday-FieldK. (1994). Statistical methodology for the concurrent assessment of interrater and intrarater reliability: Using goniometric measurements as an example. Physical Therapy, 74, 777–788.
15.
ElmanR. J.Bernstein-EllisE. (1999). The efficacy of group communication treatment in adults with chronic aphasia. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 42, 411–419.
16.
FriedmanL. M.FurbergC. D.DeMetsD. L. (1998). Fundamentals of clinical trials (3rd ed.). New York: Springer.
17.
GitlinL. N.CorcoranM.WinterL.BoyceA.HauckW. W. (2001). A randomized controlled trial of a home environmental intervention: Effect on efficacy and upset in caregivers and on daily function of persons with dementia. The Gerontologist, 41, 4–14.
18.
GlogowskaM.RoulstoneS.EnderbyP.PetersT. J. (2000). Randomized controlled trial of community based speech and language therapy in preschool children. British Medical Journal, 321, 923–926.
19.
HagstenB.SvenssonO.GardulfA. (2004). Early individualized postoperative occupational therapy training in 100 patients improves ADL after hip fracture: A randomized trial. Acta Orthopaedica Scandinavica, 75, 177–183.
20.
HammondA.YoungA.KidaoR. (2004). A randomised controlled trial of occupational therapy for people with rheumatoid arthritis. Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, 63, 23–30.
21.
HarrisV.OnslowM.PackmanA.HarrisonE.MenziesR. (2002). An experimental investigation of the impact of the Lidcombe Program on early stuttering. Journal of Fluency Disorders, 27, 203–214.
22.
HendriksenH.HarrisonR. A. (2001). Occupational therapy in accident and emergency departments: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 36, 727–732.
23.
HolmM. B. (2000). Our mandate for the new millennium: Evidence-based practice. The 2000 Eleanor Clark Slagle lecture. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 54, 575–585.
24.
JoussetN.FanelloS.BontouxL.DubusV.BillabertC.VielleB.. (2004). Effects of functional restoration versus 3 hours per week of physical therapy: A randomized controlled study. Spine, 29, 487–493.
25.
KhalilH. S.BridgerM. W.Hilton-PierceM.VincentJ. (2003). The use of speech therapy in the treatment of globus pharyngeus patients: A randomised controlled trial. Revue de Larygologie-Otologie-Rhinologie, 124, 187–190.
26.
Moberg-MogrenE.NelsonD. L. (2006). Evaluating the quality of reporting occupational therapy randomized trials by expanding the CONSORT criteria. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 60, 226–235.
27.
MoherD.JonesA.LepageL. (2001). Use of the CONSORT statement and quality of reports of randomized trials: A comparative before-and-after evaluation. JAMA, 285, 1992–1995.
28.
NelsonD. L.MathiowetzV. (2004). Randomized controlled trials to investigate occupational therapy research questions. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 58, 24–34.
29.
OttenbacherK. J.MaasF. (1999). How to detect effects: Statistical power and evidence-based practice in occupational therapy research. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 53, 181–188.
30.
PamplonaM. C.YsunzaA.EspinosaJ. (1999). A comparative trial of two modalities of speech intervention for compensatory articulation in cleft palate children, phonologic approach versus articulatory approach. International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology, 49, 21–26.
31.
PamplonaM. C.YsunzaA.Jimènez-MuratY. (2001). Mothers of children with cleft palate undergoing speech intervention change communicative intervention. International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology, 59, 173–179.
32.
PamplonaM. C.YsunzaA.RamírezP. (2004). Naturalistic intervention in cleft palate children. International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology, 68, 75–81.
33.
PardessusV.PuisieuxF.Di PompeoC.GaudefroyC.ThevenonA.DewaillyP. (2002). Benefits of home visits for falls and autonomy in the elderly: A randomized trial study. American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 17, 247–252.
34.
PulvermullerF.NeiningerB.ElbertT.MohrB.RockstrohB.KoebbelP.. (2001). Constraint-induced therapy of chronic aphasia after stroke. Stroke, 32, 1621–1626.
35.
RobertsonS. B.WeismerS. E. (1999). Effects of treatment on linguistic and social skills in toddlers with delayed language development. Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, 42, 1234–1248.
36.
RodgersH.MacKintoshJ.PriceC.WoodR.McNameeP.FearonT.. (2003). Does an early increased-intensity interdisciplinary upper limb therapy programme following acute stroke improve outcome?Clinical Rehabilitation, 17, 579–589.
37.
RoyN.WeinrichB.GrayS. D.TannerK.StempleJ. C.SapienzaC. M. (2003). Three treatments for teachers with voice disorders: A randomized clinical trial. Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, 46, 670–688.
38.
SageR. (2001). Supporting primary and secondary pupils with communication and behaviour problems. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 36, 423–428.
39.
ShroutP. E.FleissJ. L. (1979). Intraclass correlations: Uses in assessing rater reliability. Psychological Bulletin, 2, 420–428.
40.
SladeA.TennantA.ChamberlainM. A. (2002). A randomised controlled trial to determine the effect of intensity of therapy upon length of stay in a neurological rehabilitation setting. Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine, 34, 260–266.
41.
StinsonJ. N.McGrathP. J.YamadaJ. T. (2003). Clinical trials in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology: Applying the CONSORT statement. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 28, 159–167.
42.
Tickle-DegnenL. (1999). Organizing, evaluating, and using evidence in occupational therapy practice. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 53, 537–539.
43.
Tickle-DegnenL.BedellG. (2003). Heterarchy and hierarchy: A critical appraisal of the “levels of evidence” as a tool for clinical decision making. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 57, 234–237.
44.
WolfeV.PresleyC.MesarisJ. (2003). The importance of sound identification in phonological intervention. American Journal of Speech Language Pathology, 12, 282–288.
45.
WykesT.ReederC.CornerJ.WilliamsC.EverittB. (1999). The effects of neurocognitive remediation on executive processing in patients with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 25, 291–307.
46.
YoderP. J.WarrenS. F. (2001). Intentional communication elicits language-facilitating maternal responses in dyads with children who have developmental disabilities. American Journal of Mental Retardation, 106, 327–335.
