IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0056410.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Characteristics of Randomized Trials Published in Latin America and the Caribbean According to Funding Source

Author

Listed:
  • Ludovic Reveiz
  • Stephanie Sangalang
  • Demian Glujovsky
  • Carlos E Pinzon
  • Claudia Asenjo Lobos
  • Marcela Cortes
  • Martin Cañón
  • Ariel Bardach
  • Xavier Bonfill

Abstract

Introduction: Few studies have assessed the nature and quality of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Methods and Findings: The aims of this systematic review are to evaluate the characteristics (including the risk of bias assessment) of RCT conducted in LAC according to funding source. A review of RCTs published in 2010 in which the author's affiliation was from LAC was performed in PubMed and LILACS. Two reviewers independently extracted data and assessed the risk of bias. The primary outcomes were risk of bias assessment and funding source. A total of 1,695 references were found in PubMed and LILACS databases, of which 526 were RCTs (N = 73.513 participants). English was the dominant publication language (93%) and most of the RCTs were published in non-LAC journals (84.2%). Only five of the 19 identified countries accounted for nearly 95% of all RCTs conducted in the region (Brazil 70.9%, Mexico 10.1%, Argentina 5.9%, Colombia 3.8%, and Chile 3.4%). Few RCTs covered priority areas related with Millennium Development Goals like maternal health (6.7%) or high priority infectious diseases (3.8%). Regarding children, 3.6% and 0.4% RCT evaluated nutrition and diarrhea interventions respectively but none pneumonia. As a comparison, aesthetic and sport related interventions account for 4.6% of all trials. A random sample of RCTs (n = 358) was assessed for funding source: exclusively public (33.8%); private (e.g. pharmaceutical company) (15.3%); other (e.g. mixed, NGO) (15.1%); no funding (35.8%). Overall assessments for risk of bias showed no statistically significant differences between RCTs and type of funding source. Statistically significant differences favoring private and others type of funding was found when assessing trial registration and conflict of interest reporting. Conclusion: Findings of this study could be used to provide more direction for future research to facilitate innovation, improve health outcomes or address priority health problems.

Suggested Citation

  • Ludovic Reveiz & Stephanie Sangalang & Demian Glujovsky & Carlos E Pinzon & Claudia Asenjo Lobos & Marcela Cortes & Martin Cañón & Ariel Bardach & Xavier Bonfill, 2013. "Characteristics of Randomized Trials Published in Latin America and the Caribbean According to Funding Source," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(2), pages 1-8, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0056410
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0056410
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0056410
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0056410&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0056410?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. Kuang-Yao Pan, William & Erlien, Christine & Bilsborrow, Richard E., 2010. "Morbidity and mortality disparities among colonist and indigenous populations in the Ecuadorian Amazon," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(3), pages 401-411, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Keisha Goodridge & Ludovic Reveiz & Vanessa Elias, 2017. "An overview of financial sources being utilized to support Zika Virus published research," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(8), pages 1-9, August.

    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. Begotti, Rodrigo A. & Peres, Carlos A., 2020. "Rapidly escalating threats to the biodiversity and ethnocultural capital of Brazilian Indigenous Lands," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 96(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:pone00:0056410. 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.