Please remove me from the mailing list as I shall be away from work for the
next month. I shall re-apply on my return.
Dr Allan Pelkowitz
GP Liaison
Ph: 3074949 x4098
Mob: 021769222
> -----Original Message-----
> From: badri badrinath [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Thursday, 24 October 2002 01:31
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Q & D EBM - the role of abstracts
>
> Dear All,
>
> Greetings from Colindale in London (Communicable Disease Surveillance
> Centre) where I am attending a two day course and this is the lunch time.
> and thought I could join in the on going discussion.
>
> It is heartening to see that plenty of resources are available locally,
> nationally and internationally and people who fund these, those who
> provide
> them and the users are all geared up to the task. This discussion list has
>
> given an opportunity to share the ideas and thoughts around these areas
>
> Just a little note on abstracts as they will be commonly looked at least
> in
> the initial satages of searching for evidence.
>
> Verbeek JH, van Dijk FJ, Malmivaara A, Hulshof CT, Rasanen K, Kankaanpaa
> EE,
> Mukala K. Evidence-based medicine for occupational health. Scand J Work
> Environ Health 2002 Jun;28(3):197-204
> In occupational health "With the use of the abstracts only, most clinical
> questions could be answered satisfactorily, but concrete risk estimates
> were
> often lacking. The lack of availability of full text journals decreased
> the
> reliability of the critical appraisal and risk estimation".
>
> Pitkin RM, Branagan MA, Burmeister LF. Accuracy of data in abstracts of
> published research articles. JAMA 1999 Mar 24-31;281(12):1110-1
> The authors studied articles published in V5 journals and CMAJ. "Data in
> the
> abstract that are inconsistent with or absent from the article's body are
> common, even in large-circulation general medical journals".
>
> They even performed a RCT to see whether educational intervention will
> improve the quality of abstracts.
> "Pitkin RM, Branagan MA. Can the accuracy of abstracts be improved by
> providing specific instructions? A randomized controlled trial. JAMA 1998
> Jul 15;280(3):267-9
> Defects in abstracts, particularly inconsistencies between abstract and
> body
> and the presentation of data in abstract but not in body, occur
> frequently.
> Specific instructions to authors who are revising their manuscripts are
> ineffective in lowering this rate. Journals should include in their
> editing
> processes specific and detailed attention to abstracts".
>
> In Psychology
> Harris AH, Standard S, Brunning JL, Casey SL, Goldberg JH, Oliver L, Ito
> K,
> Marshall JM. The accuracy of abstracts in psychology journals. J Psychol
> 2002 Mar;136(2):141-8
> "Abstracts accompanying 13% of a random sample of 400 research articles
> published in 8 American Psychological Association journals during 1997 and
>
> 1998 contained data or claims inconsistent with or missing from the body
> of
> the article".
>
> Also the recently reported FUTON bias might be relevent here.
>
> I should confess that I have only looked at the abstracts of the above
> papers and not the full text. More over I have not critically appraised
> them
> as the post lunch session will start any minute.
>
> Cheers & regards,
>
> Badri
>
> Dr.P.Badrinath M.D,M.Phil,(Epid)PhD(Cantab)DFPHM,MPH(Distinc)
> Specialist Registrar in PHM & Honorary Clinical Lecturer,
> Suffolk Public Health Network & University of Cambridge,
> PO Box 170, St.Clement's Hospital, Ipswich IP1 4LA, UK.
> http://myprofile.cos.com/badrishanthi
>
>
>
>
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