Assessment of Randomized Controlled Clinical Trials articles in Iranian Journal of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Infertility: 2009-2019

Randomized controlled clinical trial studies are the most valuable types of studies that their proper design and accurate reporting are of particular importance in medical science. This study was performed with aim to critically evaluate the randomized controlled clinical trial studies in the Iranian Journal of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Infertility.

In this cross-sectional analytic study, the clinical trial articles of the Iranian Journal of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Infertility between 2009 and 2019 were collected and scored based on the latest edition of the Consort Checklist (2010) by three biostatisticians that their training's adequacy was confirmed by measuring the kappa agreement coefficient. The articles were scored, and based on the scores, they were classified into five categories: very poor to excellent. Data were analyzed by SPSS software (version 25) and descriptive statistics.

Out of a total of 1318 articles published during 11 years, 325 were clinical trials, among them only 6 articles (1.85%) were rated as excellent. The lowest and highest scores among the reviewed articles were 14 and 28 (maximum score was 37). The mean and standard deviation of the scores obtained in all articles was calculated as 19.05± 0.34. However, less attention was paid to the two main issues of randomization and blindness in the clinical trials.

Due to the importance of clinical trial studies, it is necessary to pay attention to the articles' quality based on the consort checklist. It is also suggested that authors of such articles pay more attention to the two essential foundations of clinical studies, randomization and blindness, to increase the generalization of the results.