Strategies for measuring long-term control in atopic dermatitis trials: a systematic review
Background: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease. There are no standardised methods for capturing long-term control of AD. Objective: To identify how long-term control has been captured in published randomised controlled trials (RCTs). Resultswill initiate consensus discu...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2016
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| Online Access: | http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33830/ http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33830/ http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33830/ http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33830/1/LTC%20Manuscript.pdf |
| Summary: | Background: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease. There are no standardised methods for capturing long-term control of AD.
Objective: To identify how long-term control has been captured in published randomised controlled trials (RCTs). Resultswill initiate consensus discussions on how best to measure long-term control in the core outcome set for AD.
Methods: Systematic review of RCTs of AD treatments published between 2000 and 2013, with a follow-up period of ≥3 months, at least one outcome measure recorded at ≥3 time-points, full paper available, and published in English.
Results: 101/ 353 RCTs were eligible. Methods to capture long-term control included: repeated measurement of AD outcomes (92 RCTs; 91%), use of AD medication (29 RCTs; 28.7%); and AD flares/remissions (26 RCTs; 25.7%). Repeated measurements of AD outcomes were typically collected 3 to 5 times during a trial, but analysis methods often failed to make best use of the data. Time to first flare was most commonly for trials including flare data (21/52). Medication-use was recorded based on quantity, potency and frequency of application. Limitations: Included RCT data only
Conclusion: This review illustrates the difficulties in measuring long-term control, and points to the need for improved harmonization of outcomes. |
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