In the era of systematic reviews, does the size of an individual trial still matter.
review · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 18177203.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1371/journal.pmed.0050004 and PMC identifier 2174963.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Systematic reviews that combine high-quality evidence from several trials are now widely considered to be at the top of the hierarchy of clinical evidence. Given the primacy of systematic reviews-and the fact that individual clinical trials rarely provide definitive answers to a clinical research question-some commentators question whether the sample size calculation for an individual trial still matters. Others point out that small trials can still be potentially misleading.
Medical subject headings
- Clinical Trials as Topic
- Review Literature as Topic
- Sample Size