COMPLETENESS OF REPORTING TRIAL RESULTS - EFFECT ON PHYSICIANS WILLINGNESS TO PRESCRIBE

Clinical trials may lead to conflicting results. We studied how differ ent ways of reporting results affected physicians' recommendations. A questionnaire distributed to 148 general practitioners presented resul ts of a clinical trial where a reduction of cardiac events and an incr ease of mortality was reported. Results were shown in four different w ays-relative risk reduction, absolute risk reduction, percentages of e vent-free patients, number needing to be treated to prevent an event-a s if they derived from different trials. A fifth presentation was the reduced rate of cardiac events along with the increased rate of mortal ity. Physicians were asked to estimate how much they would be willing to prescribe each drug. The mean agreement of physicians' decisions wa s 77 (28)% for relative risk reduction, 24 (28)% for absolute risk red uction, 37 (37)% for different percentages event-free patients, 34 (34 )% for number need to treat, and 23 (28)% for events reduction and mor tality for increase (p < 0.001 relative risk vs others). The method of reporting trial results and the completeness of information in the ca se of controversial results affects physicians willingness to prescrib e.