IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0020679.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Three-Armed Trials Including Placebo and No-Treatment Groups May Be Subject to Publication Bias: Systematic Review

Author

Listed:
  • Yun Hyung Koog
  • Seo Ryang We
  • Byung-Il Min

Abstract

Background: It has been argued that placebos may not have important clinical impacts in general. However, there is increasing evidence of a publication bias among trials published in journals. Therefore, we explored the potential for publication bias in randomized trials with active treatment, placebo, and no-treatment groups. Methods: Three-armed randomized trials of acupuncture, acupoint stimulation, and transcutaneous electrical stimulation were obtained from electronic databases. Effect sizes between treatment and placebo groups were calculated for treatment effect, and effect sizes between placebo and no-treatment groups were calculated for placebo effect. All data were then analyzed for publication bias. Results: For the treatment effect, small trials with fewer than 100 patients per arm showed more benefits than large trials with at least 100 patients per arm in acupuncture and acupoint stimulation. For the placebo effect, no differences were found between large and small trials. Further analyses showed that the treatment effect in acupuncture and acupoint stimulation may be subject to publication bias because study design and any known factors of heterogeneity were not associated with the small study effects. In the simulation, the magnitude of the placebo effect was smaller than that calculated after considering publication bias. Conclusions: Randomized three-armed trials, which are necessary for estimating the placebo effect, may be subject to publication bias. If the magnitude of the placebo effect is assessed in an intervention, the potential for publication bias should be investigated using data related to the treatment effect.

Suggested Citation

  • Yun Hyung Koog & Seo Ryang We & Byung-Il Min, 2011. "Three-Armed Trials Including Placebo and No-Treatment Groups May Be Subject to Publication Bias: Systematic Review," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(5), pages 1-9, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0020679
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0020679
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0020679
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0020679&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0020679?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jonathan A.C. Sterne & Roger M. Harbord, 2004. "Funnel plots in meta-analysis," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 4(2), pages 127-141, June.
    2. Jin Ling Tang, 2005. "Selection Bias in Meta-Analyses of Gene-Disease Associations," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 2(12), pages 1-1, November.
    3. Sylvain Weber, 2010. "bacon: An effective way to detect outliers in multivariate data using Stata (and Mata)," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 10(3), pages 331-338, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Michael J. Crowther & Dean Langan & Alex J. Sutton, 2012. "Graphical augmentations to the funnel plot to assess the impact of a new study on an existing meta-analysis," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 12(4), pages 605-622, December.
    2. Cristian BARRA & Roberto ZOTTI, 2019. "Bank Performance, Financial Stability And Market Concentration: Evidence From Cooperative And Non‐Cooperative Banks," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 90(1), pages 103-139, March.
    3. Solomiia Brychka & Denys Klynovskyi & Dmytro Krukovets & Artem Oharkov, 2019. "Meta-Analysis: Meta-Analysis: Effect of FX interventions on the exchange rate," Modern Economic Studies, Kyiv School of Economics, vol. 2(1), pages 24-44.
    4. Jozef Konings & Catherine Lecocq & Bruno Merlevede, 2022. "Does a tax deduction scheme matter for jobs and investment by multinational and domestic enterprises?," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(4), pages 1966-1989, November.
    5. Eng, Li Li & Fikru, Mahelet G. & Vichitsarawong, Thanyaluk, 2021. "The impact of toxic chemical releases and their management on financial performance," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    6. Weber, Sylvain & Puddu, Stefano & Pacheco, Diana, 2017. "Move it! How an electric contest motivates households to shift their load profile," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 255-270.
    7. Konings, Jozef & Lecocq, Cathy & Merlevede, Bruno, 2018. "Does a Tax Credit matter for Job Creation by Multinational Enterprises?," CEPR Discussion Papers 13105, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Batalla-Bejerano, Joan & Costa-Campi, Maria Teresa & Trujillo-Baute, Elisa, 2016. "Collateral effects of liberalisation: Metering, losses, load profiles and cost settlement in Spain’s electricity system," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 421-431.
    9. Amal F. Alshammary & Khalid Khalaf Alharbi & Naif Jameel Alshehri & Vishal Vennu & Imran Ali Khan, 2021. "Metabolic Syndrome and Coronary Artery Disease Risk: A Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-16, February.
    10. Mary, Sebastien, 2022. "Dams mitigate the effect of rainfall shocks on Hindus-Muslims riots," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    11. Jiří Schwarz & Martin Pospíšil, 2018. "Bankruptcy, Investment, and Financial Constraints: Evidence from the Czech Republic," Eastern European Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(2), pages 99-121, March.
    12. Ugur, Mehmet & Awaworyi, Sefa & Solomon, Edna, 2016. "Technological innovation and employment in derived labour demand models: A hierarchical meta-regression analysis," MPRA Paper 73557, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Ugur, Mehmet & Trushin, Eshref & Solomon, Edna & Guidi, Francesco, 2016. "R&D and productivity in OECD firms and industries: A hierarchical meta-regression analysis," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(10), pages 2069-2086.
    14. Da-Jung Ha & Jung-Hyun Park & Su-Eun Jung & Boram Lee & Myo-Sung Kim & Kyo-Lin Sim & Yung-Hyun Choi & Chan-Young Kwon, 2021. "The Experience of Emotional Labor and Its Related Factors among Nurses in General Hospital Settings in Republic of Korea: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-21, October.
    15. Christin Höge-Junge & Stefan Eckert, 2024. "Multinationality and systematic risk: a literature review and meta-analysis," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 74(1), pages 377-414, February.
    16. Nino Fonseca & Marcelino Sánchez-Rivero, 2020. "Significance bias in the tourism-led growth literature," Tourism Economics, , vol. 26(1), pages 137-154, February.
    17. Egger, Peter H. & Strecker, Nora M. & Zoller-Rydzek, Benedikt, 2020. "Estimating bargaining-related tax advantages of multinational firms," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    18. Philippe Kabore & Nicholas Rivers, 2023. "Manufacturing output and extreme temperature: Evidence from Canada," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 56(1), pages 191-224, February.
    19. Thomas, RA, 2014. "Foreign aid and HIV infections: evidence of causal effects from country-level panel data," Working Papers 18673, Imperial College, London, Imperial College Business School.
    20. Bozzola, Martina & Smale, Melinda, 2020. "The welfare effects of crop biodiversity as an adaptation to climate shocks in Kenya," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0020679. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.