Paula Andrade*, Tatiana Dilla and Jose A Sacristan
Rationale, aims and objectives: Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) seeks to identify what health care interventions work best for improving health at both the individual and population level. The objective of this study was to determine whether published comparative effectiveness research studies adhere to accepted methodological principles.
Methods: Structured literature search of CER articles published in high-impact general medicine journals between 2009 and 2015, and assessment of their adherence to five methodological principles.
Results: 93 articles were retrieved from the search and 40 articles were finally selected. All of the studies included active comparators, 35% of the studies did not evaluate safety, 97% did not evaluate costs, 95% of the studies did not included patient perspectives, and 60% did not use any procedure to determine the heterogeneity of the response.
Conclusion: The sample of CER papers examined did not meet the recommended requisites for this type of studies. Our findings suggest that the majority of CER studies may not be useful to guide physicians, purchasers, and policy makers to make informed decisions that improve health care at both the individual and population levels.