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Table 1 General characteristics of randomized trials reporting a flow diagram indexed in PubMed from July to December 2009 (n = 263)

From: Reporting of participant flow diagrams in published reports of randomized trials

Trial design

Parallel

(n = 236)

Other *

(n = 27)

Journal type

  

Specialty

144 (61%)

11 (41%)

General medical

92 (39%)

16 (59%

Funding

  

Solely industry

40 (17%)

1 (4%)

Part industry

43 (18%)

2 (7%)

Non industry

126 (53%)

20 (74%)

None

5 (2%)

2 (7%)

Unknown

22 (9%)

2 (7%)

CONSORT endorsing journal

 

Yes

210 (89%)

27 (100%)

No

26 (11%)

0 (0%)

Top 5 common specialty fields

 
 

Paediatrics 34 (14%)

Paediatrics 10 (34%)

 

Cardiology 29 (12%)

Cardiology 2 (7%)

 

Psychiatry 20 (9%)

Psychiatry 2 (7%)

 

Infectious diseases 20 (9%)

Infectious diseases 2 (7%)

 

Oncology 17 (7%)

Oncology 1 (3%)

Intervention

  

Drug

116 (49%)

6 (22%)

Surgery/procedure

46 (20%)

3 (11%)

Counselling/lifestyle

64 (27%)

15 (56%)

Equipment

10 (4%)

3 (11%)

Study centres

  

Single

72 (31%)

4 (15%)

Multiple

137 (58%)

20 (74%)

Unclear

27 (11%)

3 (11%)

Number of study groups

 

2

187 (79%)

20 (74%)

3

36 (15%)

2 (7%)

4

11 (5%)

3 (11%)

> 4

2 (1%)

2 (7%)

Sample size

  

Median (IQR)

213 (101 to 476)

529 (130 to 2243) †

10 to 90 percentile

50 to 1217

56 to 61280

  1. * Cluster n = 16; Crossover n = 4; Factorial n = 4; Split Body n = 3
  2. † Sample size not reported for 1 cluster trial