Content Reporting in Post-Stroke Therapeutic Circuit-Class Exercise Programs in randomized control trials

How well do published randomized controlled trials on pelvic floor muscle training interventions for urinary incontinence describe the details of the intervention? A review

“…For every instrument used in this study, more than half of the items on the list were reported less than 50% of the time. These results align with the findings of Hay‐Smith et al, as well as other studies that have shown poor exercise‐based intervention reporting in the physiotherapy management of pelvic floor and other conditions . This trend across the physiotherapy literature demonstrates the necessity for the systematic use of standardized instruments such as CERT and TIDieR to detail, as much as possible, all of the parameters of an exercise intervention to facilitate best practices implementation.…”

“…The reviewers attended two training sessions of 1 hour on each on the three exercise‐reporting instruments (CERT, TIDieR, and CONTENT). The training was provided by a third physiotherapist and doctoral candidate (author's initials removed to protect blinding) in Rehabilitation Sciences who had used these scales in four previous evaluations of exercise reporting in other areas of physiotherapy . To ensure proper understanding and application, three RCTs describing exercise interventions for knee osteoarthritis, that were previously assessed by (author's initials removed to protect blinding), were used to assess each reviewer's readiness to begin the data extraction process.…”

“…The training was provided by a third physiotherapist and doctoral candidate (author's initials removed to protect blinding) in Rehabilitation Sciences who had used these scales in four previous evaluations of exercise reporting in other areas of physiotherapy. [5][6][7] To ensure proper understanding and application, three RCTs describing exercise interventions for knee osteoarthritis, that were previously assessed by (author's initials removed to protect blinding), were used to assess each reviewer's readiness to begin the data extraction process. Once ready, each reviewer independently scored the included PFMT trials with each of the three different exercise-reporting tools, blinded to the other reviewer's scores.…”

“…Physiotherapy is an evidence‐based science that has produced good quality research to guide treatment and clinical decision‐making. Recent studies in other areas of physiotherapy have, however, revealed gaps in reporting on exercise‐based interventions, which can lead to difficulties in reproducing the interventions in clinical settings . Indeed, Yamato et al, reported that for most physiotherapy trials, the interventions are unreproducible.…”

“…Recent studies in other areas of physiotherapy have, however, revealed gaps in reporting on exercise-based interventions, which can lead to difficulties in reproducing the interventions in clinical settings. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] Indeed, Yamato et al, 12 reported that for most physiotherapy trials, the interventions are unreproducible. Poorly reported interventions can create barriers to implementation of best practices that may affect treatment effectiveness, not allowing patients to receive up-todate evidence-based interventions.…”