Reporting Guideline for Trials of Social and Psychological Interventions: CONSORT-SPI

Background: Many interventions in public health are complex. Understanding randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of public health interventions requires detailed reports of interventions tested and methods used to evaluate them. However, RCT reports often omit important information, hindering critical appraisal and effective transfer of research evidence to practice and policy decision-making. This presentation will discuss a new reporting guideline to help authors and editors report public health trials completely.  We will present an extension of the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) Statement for Social and Psychological Interventions: CONSORT-SPI.

Methods: Stakeholders from 32 countries—including 21 editors of public health journals—participated in a Delphi process and were asked to rate the importance of including proposed reporting standards in the CONSORT-SPI guidelines. The results of the Delphi process, along with previous systematic literature reviews, were used to inform a formal consensus development conference. Stakeholders discussed each recommended reporting standard and voted on the final guideline content. Participants included key researchers, journal editors, and funders.

Results: A checklist for reporting RCTs was developed based on empirical research and expert consensus. An explanation and elaboration (E&E) document will provide detailed advice for each item and examples of good reporting from public health RCTs.

Conclusions: This guideline is an important step toward improving reports of public health interventions. The development of an evidence-based reporting guideline should improve the accuracy, comprehensiveness, and transparency of RCT reports in public health. Endorsement of the guideline by journals, research funders, and professional organizations will facilitate use of and feedback on the guideline, which in turn will help to raise the quality of standards in public health research.