Are positive alternative medical therapy trials credible?: Evidence from four high-impact medical journals.

Abstract:

:Forty-five complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) efficacy randomized controlled trials (RCTs) from high-impact medical journals (NEJM, JAMA, Annals of Internal Medicine, and Archives of Internal Medicine) were reviewed based on their meeting three validity criteria (the existence of a placebo control, moderate attrition rates, and 50 or more participants per group). Of the 26 efficacy trials meeting all three criteria, only 2 (7.7%) were judged to be positive (i.e., the alternative therapy was significantly superior to its placebo control), while over half (55.5%) of the 19 trials that failed to meet one or more of these criteria reported positive results (p < .001). Of the two positive high-validity trials, one was funded and authored by the herbal company marketing the product tested and one used a placebo-control group of questionable credibility. This analysis is consistent with the hypothesis that CAM therapies are no more effective than placebos when adequate experimental control is present.

journal_name

Eval Health Prof

authors

Barker Bausell R

doi

10.1177/0163278709346810

subject

Has Abstract

pub_date

2009-12-01 00:00:00

pages

349-69

issue

4

eissn

0163-2787

issn

1552-3918

pii

0163278709346810

journal_volume

32

pub_type

杂志文章
  • Evaluation of a hospice program: effects on terminally ill patients and their families.

    abstract::Hospice care in the United States has grown rapidly since its introduction here from England in the mid-1970s. Surprisingly little evaluation of services has been made public, particularly with regard not merely to demographics but also the actual effect of hospice caregiving on patients and families. This article des...

    journal_title:Evaluation & the health professions

    pub_type: 杂志文章

    doi:10.1177/016327878100400305

    authors: Silver S

    更新日期:1981-09-01 00:00:00

  • Longitudinal outcomes of a comprehensive, incentivized worksite wellness program.

    abstract::This study evaluated health benefits of long-term participation in an employer-based wellness program, focusing on selected chronic disease risk factors. A repeated measures longitudinal time-series study was conducted of 8 years of existing prospectively collected annual data, including clinical measures of weight, b...

    journal_title:Evaluation & the health professions

    pub_type: 杂志文章

    doi:10.1177/0163278710379222

    authors: Neville BH,Merrill RM,Kumpfer KL

    更新日期:2011-03-01 00:00:00

  • Follow-up for medical care among drug users with hepatitis C.

    abstract::Prevalence of hepatitis C (HCV) in injection drug users (IDUs) is high and once HCV has been detected, follow-up medical care is essential. Six hundred and one current and former IDUs who tested positive for HCV antibodies received referrals for medical care. Twenty-four percent (147) of participants returned to be in...

    journal_title:Evaluation & the health professions

    pub_type: 杂志文章

    doi:10.1177/0163278706296003

    authors: Reynolds GL,Fisher DG,Jaffe A,Edwards J

    更新日期:2006-12-01 00:00:00

  • Life in the fast lane. An evaluation of an accelerated RN-MSN program.

    abstract::The Pew Health Commission on professional education has recommended innovative educational programs to promote career mobility among nurses. To assure continued quality of nursing education in the face of innovation, the Philip Y. Hahn School of Nursing conducted a comprehensive evaluation of its accelerated RN-MSN pr...

    journal_title:Evaluation & the health professions

    pub_type: 杂志文章

    doi:10.1177/016327879702000205

    authors: Clark MJ

    更新日期:1997-06-01 00:00:00

  • A comparison of empirical ranking methods of frequency and severity ratings of clinical presentations.

    abstract::This study compares five methods of ranking Likert ratings on frequency and severity scales. Data were drawn from an international online survey conducted as part of a practice analysis with 91 diplomates of the American Chiropractic Board of Radiology. A total of 129 clinical presentations had been rated on two scale...

    journal_title:Evaluation & the health professions

    pub_type: 杂志文章

    doi:10.1177/0163278711425041

    authors: Smith SD,Beran TN

    更新日期:2012-12-01 00:00:00

  • Assessing the value of Medicaid prescreening in a county public health unit.

    abstract::The purpose of this study was to determine if already-existing staff in a rural health department could effectively increase access of their clients to Medicaid. All "sliding fee" patients seeking services were asked a series of questions to determine their categorical eligibility for Medicaid. Those identified as pot...

    journal_title:Evaluation & the health professions

    pub_type: 杂志文章

    doi:10.1177/016327879101400403

    authors: Serow EG

    更新日期:1991-12-01 00:00:00

  • Student Perceptions of Collaboration Skills in an Interprofessional Context: Development and Initial Validation of the Self-Assessed Collaboration Skills Instrument.

    abstract::An integral component of interprofessional education (IPE) is the development of a collaboration-ready health-care workforce. While collaboration is a fundamental element of IPE, there is no existing measure of collaboration skills that is not context specific. This article describes the development and initial valida...

    journal_title:Evaluation & the health professions

    pub_type: 杂志文章

    doi:10.1177/0163278717752438

    authors: Hinyard L,Toomey E,Eliot K,Breitbach A

    更新日期:2019-12-01 00:00:00

  • When to stop treatment arms in a clinical trial assessing time to event with more than two arms against a common control.

    abstract::Two-arm time-to-event (or survival) trials are powered to continue until a required number of events is reached. The authors discuss how the required number of events should be defined for a study with three or more arms with various pairwise comparisons and a common control arm. They advocate stopping one active arm ...

    journal_title:Evaluation & the health professions

    pub_type: 杂志文章

    doi:10.1177/0163278707304037

    authors: Grobler AC,Carrara HR,Mwambi HG,Parker RA

    更新日期:2007-09-01 00:00:00

  • Context effects. Powerful therapies or methodological bias?

    abstract::This article provides an analysis of the way in which placebo effects could be investigated and taken into account, supported by a description of some of the major articles that have been published on this topic. Based on conceptual, theoretical, and methodological issues, the authors highlight some of the reasons for...

    journal_title:Evaluation & the health professions

    pub_type: 杂志文章,评审

    doi:10.1177/0163278703026002003

    authors: Di Blasi Z,Kleijnen J

    更新日期:2003-06-01 00:00:00

  • Assessing attitudes toward new names for chronic fatigue syndrome.

    abstract::A questionnaire was distributed at the American Association of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome's biannual convention in Washington in January 2001 as well as through various Internet Web sites and listserves during early February and March of 2001. The sample consisted of 432 respondents. Most respondents (86%) indicated the...

    journal_title:Evaluation & the health professions

    pub_type: 杂志文章

    doi:10.1177/01632780122034993

    authors: Jason LA,Eisele H,Taylor RR

    更新日期:2001-12-01 00:00:00

  • A foreign medical school transfer program: student performance and career choices.

    abstract::U.S. medical students who have been unable to gain acceptance into medical schools have long sought alternative pathways into American medical practice. The Medical College of Georgia (MCG) has had a transfer program since 1977 to facilitate entry of Georgia Transfer students into the third-year clinical rotations. Af...

    journal_title:Evaluation & the health professions

    pub_type: 杂志文章

    doi:10.1177/016327878500800307

    authors: Lewis LA,Kuske TT

    更新日期:1985-09-01 00:00:00

  • Cost-benefit studies of health care programs. Choosing methods for desired results.

    abstract::This article summarizes the results of a critical review of several cost-benefit analyses (CBA) of health care programs. With pertinent examples, it is demonstrated that the results and conclusions of a study depend upon the assumptions and methods underlying the measurement of costs and benefits in a CBA. Given the i...

    journal_title:Evaluation & the health professions

    pub_type: 杂志文章,评审

    doi:10.1177/016327878400700302

    authors: Joglekar PN

    更新日期:1984-09-01 00:00:00

  • Recruitment strategies. Pharmacists' participation in an evaluation project to dispense emergency contraception.

    abstract::The objective of this article was to describe the effectiveness of a multifocus recruitment strategy to a pilot project allowing direct provision of emergency contraception (EC) in a community pharmacy through collaborative agreements between pharmacists and physicians. The project recruited pharmacies through direct ...

    journal_title:Evaluation & the health professions

    pub_type: 杂志文章

    doi:10.1177/0163278703261202

    authors: Cockerill R,Cohen M,Dunn S,Brown T

    更新日期:2004-03-01 00:00:00

  • Measuring physicians' and medical students' attitudes toward caring for immigrant patients.

    abstract::It is generally believed that culturally competent clinical practice depends in part on the development of positive attitudes toward the care of immigrant patients. However, few tools exist to measure such attitudes in physicians. The authors operationalized ''culturally competent attitudes'' to include a high level o...

    journal_title:Evaluation & the health professions

    pub_type: 杂志文章

    doi:10.1177/0163278710370157

    authors: Hudelson P,Perron NJ,Perneger TV

    更新日期:2010-12-01 00:00:00

  • Periodic competency review. An assessment and policy model.

    abstract::Periodic review of professional competence or performance is on the public agenda as a response to rising malpractice suits, iatrogenic morbidity, and mortality resulting directly from professional incompetence, and the inadequacy of current licensing and discipline systems. This article reviews several continuing com...

    journal_title:Evaluation & the health professions

    pub_type: 杂志文章

    doi:10.1177/016327878701000306

    authors: Mandelbaum L

    更新日期:1987-09-01 00:00:00

  • Physicians and DRGs. Hospital management alternatives.

    abstract::Rising health care costs in general and hospital costs in particular have placed significant financial strain on federal programs such as Medicare. It was with this in mind that the Reagan administration in 1983 initiated Medicare's new prospective payment system based on diagnostic-related groups (DRGs) to reduce the...

    journal_title:Evaluation & the health professions

    pub_type: 杂志文章

    doi:10.1177/016327878801100405

    authors: Patel K

    更新日期:1988-12-01 00:00:00

  • The precision of practice analysis results in the professions.

    abstract::A practice analysis, in which an appropriate sample of professionals is asked to describe what they do in their practices, is considered an essential part of the content-related validity evidence for licensure and certification tests. This article examines the precision of estimates of the mean frequencies for categor...

    journal_title:Evaluation & the health professions

    pub_type: 杂志文章

    doi:10.1177/016327879501800103

    authors: Kane MT,Miller T,Trine M,Becker C,Carson K

    更新日期:1995-03-01 00:00:00

  • A VNA home health care program: predicting patients who refuse services.

    abstract::Many studies have been compiled which report patient characteristics and patterns in the utilization of health care services. Very little information is available on the characteristics of patients who refuse services in a particular program. This article employs a sample of 246 home health care patients to describe t...

    journal_title:Evaluation & the health professions

    pub_type: 杂志文章

    doi:10.1177/016327878200500205

    authors: Legge JS Jr

    更新日期:1982-06-01 00:00:00

  • Comparison of mail and telephone in assessing patient experiences in receiving care from medical group practices.

    abstract::The medical group survey from the CAHPS (formerly Consumer Assessment of Health Plans Study) project, G-CAHPS, focuses on patient experiences in receiving care from their medical group practice. We compared mail and telephone responses to the G-CAHPS survey in a sample of 880 patients from four physician groups. Patie...

    journal_title:Evaluation & the health professions

    pub_type: 杂志文章,随机对照试验

    doi:10.1177/0163278705281074

    authors: Hepner KA,Brown JA,Hays RD

    更新日期:2005-12-01 00:00:00

  • Is evaluating complementary and alternative medicine equivalent to evaluating the absurd?

    abstract::Complementary and alternative therapies such as reflexology and acupuncture have been the subject of numerous evaluations, clinical trials, and systematic reviews, yet the empirical evidence in support of their efficacy remains equivocal. The empirical evaluation of a therapy would normally assume a plausible rational...

    journal_title:Evaluation & the health professions

    pub_type: 杂志文章

    doi:10.1177/0163278710361923

    authors: Greasley P

    更新日期:2010-06-01 00:00:00

  • Potentially Inappropriate Medications in Nursing Home Residents: A Comparison of Two Approaches.

    abstract::There is currently limited information on the comparative effectiveness of the European Union(7)-potentially inappropriate medication (EU(7)-PIM) list and the Beers criteria for screening PIMs, of which PIMs are a significant concern, in the geriatric population of nursing home residents. This study aims to determine ...

    journal_title:Evaluation & the health professions

    pub_type: 杂志文章

    doi:10.1177/0163278719900653

    authors: Stojanović M,Vuković M,Jovanović M,Dimitrijević S,Radenković M

    更新日期:2020-01-22 00:00:00

  • Universal Design for Measurement: Centering the Experiences of Individuals With Disabilities Within Health Measurement Research.

    abstract::People with disabilities comprise roughly 25% of the U.S. adult population yet remain underrepresented in mainstream public health and evaluation research. The lack of measures of common constructs that are validated in but not specific to this population may impede their inclusion. This article describes the use of U...

    journal_title:Evaluation & the health professions

    pub_type: 杂志文章

    doi:10.1177/0163278719900530

    authors: Thomas EV,Warren-Findlow J,Reeve CL,Webb JB,Laditka SB,Quinlan MM

    更新日期:2020-01-20 00:00:00

  • Notes from the Field: Concerns of Health-Related Higher Education Students in Brazil Pertaining to Distance Learning During the Coronavirus Pandemic.

    abstract::This survey aimed to assess the concerns of students of health-related higher education in Brazil regarding distance learning during the coronavirus pandemic. A Google Forms anonymous questionnaire was sent by WhatsApp Messenger to students at a private university. Seven hundred and four students answered the question...

    journal_title:Evaluation & the health professions

    pub_type: 杂志文章

    doi:10.1177/0163278720939302

    authors: Peloso RM,Ferruzzi F,Mori AA,Camacho DP,Franzin LCDS,Margioto Teston AP,Freitas KMS

    更新日期:2020-09-01 00:00:00

  • The nature of explanation in qualitative evaluation.

    abstract::In recent years evaluation has mushroomed dramatically as a discipline. A number of evaluation "models" or approaches have been conceived, and varieties of social science methods have been employed serving several evaluative purposes. Missing from the health profession's literature on evaluation is a discussion of the...

    journal_title:Evaluation & the health professions

    pub_type: 杂志文章

    doi:10.1177/016327878500800202

    authors: Pearsol JA

    更新日期:1985-06-01 00:00:00

  • Data pooling and analysis to build a preliminary item bank: an example using bowel function in prostate cancer.

    abstract::Assessing bowel function (BF) in prostate cancer can help determine therapeutic trade-offs. We determined the components of BF commonly assessed in prostate cancer studies as an initial step in creating an item bank for clinical and research application. We analyzed six archived data sets representing 4,246 men with p...

    journal_title:Evaluation & the health professions

    pub_type: 杂志文章

    doi:10.1177/0163278705275338

    authors: Eton DT,Lai JS,Cella D,Reeve BB,Talcott JA,Clark JA,McPherson CP,Litwin MS,Moinpour CM

    更新日期:2005-06-01 00:00:00

  • The assessment of professional competence.

    abstract::Valid assessment of professional competence has proven to be an elusive goal. Objective tests, direct observation of performance, overall ratings of competence, and simulations have been tried and found wanting in one way or another. Objective test items are criticized as being unrealistic and therefore invalid. Direc...

    journal_title:Evaluation & the health professions

    pub_type: 杂志文章,评审

    doi:10.1177/016327879201500203

    authors: Kane MT

    更新日期:1992-06-01 00:00:00

  • Type II translation: transporting prevention interventions from research to real-world settings.

    abstract::This article summarizes research on Type II translation of prevention interventions aimed at enhancing the adoption of effective programs and practices in communities. The primary goal of Type II translation is to institutionalize evidence-based programs, products, and services. First, the authors describe theoretical...

    journal_title:Evaluation & the health professions

    pub_type: 杂志文章

    doi:10.1177/0163278706290408

    authors: Rohrbach LA,Grana R,Sussman S,Valente TW

    更新日期:2006-09-01 00:00:00

  • Medical schools in crisis.

    abstract::The medical schools of the United States are in crisis because of poor teaching methods, misdirected training of medical students, and failure to respond to the needs of the population. Much of the increased cost of medical care can be blamed on high technology and the type of training provided in the medical school. ...

    journal_title:Evaluation & the health professions

    pub_type: 杂志文章,评审

    doi:10.1177/016327878801100201

    authors: Brown JH

    更新日期:1988-06-01 00:00:00

  • Patient characteristics of provider survey respondents: no evidence of nonresponse bias.

    abstract::Surveys of physicians are an important tool to assess opinions and self-reported behaviors of this policy-relevant population. However, this population is notoriously difficult to survey and plagued with low and falling response rates. In order to evaluate the potential import of response rate, we examine the presence...

    journal_title:Evaluation & the health professions

    pub_type: 杂志文章

    doi:10.1177/0163278711435542

    authors: Ziegenfuss JY,Shah ND,Fan J,Houten HK,Deming JR,Smith SA,Beebe TJ

    更新日期:2012-12-01 00:00:00

  • A residential continuum for the chronically mentally ill: a Markov probability model.

    abstract::The movement of a group of chronically mentally ill clients among various facilities for residential care was described with a Markov probability model. The results of a goodness-of-fit test indicated that the model accurately captured the flow of clients among the state psychiatric hospital, the in-patient units, the...

    journal_title:Evaluation & the health professions

    pub_type: 杂志文章

    doi:10.1177/016327878100400108

    authors: Drachman D

    更新日期:1981-03-01 00:00:00