Assessing the Quality of Randomized Controlled Trials Published in Relation to the Efficacy of Massage Therapy on Labor Pain Intensity Using CONSORT Criteria

Introduction: Randomized controlled trials are critical and important studies in medical sciences. Due to vital role of such studies in production of valid evidence in the topics related to promotion of maternal health, this study was conducted to critically appraise the quality of clinical trials published in relation to the efficacy of massage therapy on labor pain intensity published by Iranian authors using CONSORT criteria.Methods: In this cross sectional study, published Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) focused on the efficacy of massage therapy on labor pain intensity were searched using the keywords of labor pain, massage, randomized clinical trials, in English and Persian databases from 1999 to 2016. The databases included Google scholar, PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL as well as Persian databases such as SID, IranMedx ,IRANDOC, and Magiran, which were critically appraised using CONSORT 2010 checklist. Out of 155 retrieved articles, 20 RCTs included in the study. All these studies were related to the impact of massage therapy on pain intensity in labor. Also were indexed in valid domestic databases and their authors affiliation was one of the Iranian universities and/or research centers. The minimum and maximum score of the checklist was zero and 37, respectively. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistical tests with SPSS software version 14.Results: The results of appraising 20 selected articles on massage therapy for labor pain relief showed that the overall accordance of the RCT reports with CONSORT criteria was about 54%. Generally, methods and materials was the weakest part of the articles, in which issues related to sample size, method used for randomized allocation and the method of blinding were not reported. The average overall score of articles was equal to 20.15±3.18 out of defined range of 12-27. The lowest percentage of reporting quality criteria was related to the methodology section, which was estimated to be about 42%.Conclusion: The most common weakness of authors in reporting the results of RCTs on the efficacy of massage therapy on labor pain relief was seen in the section of materials and methods. It could be improved by training authors towards scientific writing methods, using specialists of methodology and statistics to design and analyze the data robustly, and also using standard tools for self evaluation of the articles before its publication.

Keywords:

Critical appraisal , Randomized Controlled Trial , Labor Pain , Massage , Iran , CONSORT