The reflect statement: Methods and processes of creating reporting guidelines for randomized controlled trials for livestock and food safety

A. M. O'Connor, J. M. Sargeant, I. A. Gardner, J. S. Dickson, M. E. Torrence, C. E. Dewey, I. R. Dohoo, R. B. Evans, J. T. Gray, M. Greiner, G. Keefe, S. L. Lefebvre, P. S. Morley, A. Ramirez, W. Sischo, D. R. Smith, K. Snedeker, J. Sofos, M. P. Ward, R. Wills

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

75 Scopus citations

Abstract

The conduct of randomized controlled trials in livestock with production, health, and food-safety outcomes presents unique challenges that might not be adequately reported in trial reports. The objective of this project was to modify the CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) statement to reflect the unique aspects of reporting these livestock trials. A 2-day consensus meeting was held on November 18-19, 2008 in Chicago, IL, to achieve the objective. Before the meeting, a Web-based survey was conducted to identify issues for discussion. The 24 attendees were biostatisticians, epidemiologists, food-safety researchers, livestock production specialists, journal editors, assistant editors, and associate editors. Before the meeting, the attendees completed a Web-based survey indicating which CONSORT statement items would need to be modified to ad-dress unique issues for livestock trials. The consensus meeting resulted in the production of the REFLECT (Reporting Guidelines for Randomized Control Trials) statement for livestock and food safety and 22-item checklist. Fourteen items were modified from the CONSORT checklist, and an additional subitem was proposed to address challenge trials. The REFLECT statement proposes new terminology, more consistent with common usage in livestock production, to describe study subjects. Evidence was not always available to support modification to or inclusion of an item. The use of the REFLECT statement, which addresses issues unique to livestock trials, should improve the quality of reporting and design for trials reporting production, health, and food-safety outcomes.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)57-64
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of veterinary internal medicine
Volume24
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2010
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Grant support: USDA Food Safety and Response Network (Grant 2005-35212-15287 ); National Pork Board ; Laboratory for Foodborne Zoonoses (Public Health Agency of Canada) ; Applied Public Health Research Chair program sponsored by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research's Institute of Population and Public Health and the Public Health Agency of Canada ; The Association for Veterinary Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine ; and The American Meat Institute Foundation .

Keywords

  • Challenge studies
  • Livestock
  • Randomized trial
  • Standards

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The reflect statement: Methods and processes of creating reporting guidelines for randomized controlled trials for livestock and food safety'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this