Reporting of Patient And Public Involvement (PPI) In Clinical Trials Published In Three Leading Nursing Science Journals: A Scientiometric Study

Abstract

Background: Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) in identifying research questions, designing trials, and collecting, interpreting, and publishing results may positively affect the relevance, quality and impact of research. The extent of patient and public involvement in nursing clinical trials has not been previously studied. Methods: A Scientiometric study of PPI in clinical trials published in three leading nursing science journals. Randomised controlled clinical trials published in the International Journal of Nursing Studies, the Journal of Clinical Nursing, and the Journal of Advanced Nursing between January and April 2021 were identified by searching the SCOPUS database. Journal author guidelines were also review. Data were extracted against the five items of the Guidance for Reporting Involvement of Patients and the Public (GRIPP2) reporting checklist. Results: None of the journals required authors to include a patient and public involvement statement in submitted papers or to thank participants in the acknowledgement section of the paper. We included 23 randomised controlled clinical trials, of which half were conducted in Europe and 12 were supported by external grants. Authors thanked participants in the acknowledgement section often (43%) trials. There was no statement or evidence of patient and public involvement in any of the included trials.Conclusion: There was no evidence of PPI in trials published in nursing science journals. Researchers, funders, and journals need to collaborate to change cultural expectations to ensure that PPI is an emended part of clinical research.

Reporting of patient involvement: a mixed-methods analysis of current practice in health research publications using a targeted search strategy

“…Despite important developments in the last years, patient involvement is still not a well-established approach in clinical or health research. 14 29 Therefore, we would encourage journals to request an obligatory patient involvement statement from their authors, and to give guidance on detailed reporting in a structured table or additional document. We would also encourage journals and funding organisations to support the reporting of patient involvement by requiring the use of GRIPP2-SF as a reporting tool.…”

“…The objective of this study was to analyse the extent and quality of patient involvement reporting and the quality of patient involvement in examples of current practice in health research. We are aware of several studies that investigated the rate and quality of reporting13 or critically appraised patient involvement in specific domains of clinical research 12 14–16. Overall, these previous assessments identified very few publications that reported patient involvement and/or engagement and reporting quality was suboptimal (eg, 0.4% of the sample described the active involvement of patients in orthopaedic research16).…”

Reporting of patient involvement: A mixed-methods analysis of current practice in health research publications

“…Despite important developments in the last years, patient involvement is still not a well-established approach in clinical or health research. [14,38] Therefore, we would encourage journals to request an obligatory patient involvement statement from their authors, and to give guidance on detailed reporting in a structured table or additional document. We would also encourage journals and funding organizations to support the reporting of patient involvement by requiring the use of GRIPP2-SF as a reporting tool.…”

“…We are aware of several studies that investigated the rate and quality of reporting[13] or critically appraised patient involvement in specific domains of clinical research. [12,14–16] Overall, these previous assessments identified very few publications that reported patient involvement and/or engagement and reporting quality was sub-optimal (e.g., 0.4% of the sample described the active involvement of patients in orthopaedic research[16]). Jones et al[15] also included studies which had patient involvement as primary focus, such as prioritizing research topics.…”