Protocol adherence rates in superiority and noninferiority randomized clinical trials published in high impact medical journals.
Nicolas A BamatOsayame A EkhaguereLingqiao ZhangDustin D FlannerySara C HandleyHeidi M HerrickSusan S EllenbergPublished in: Clinical trials (London, England) (2020)
Protocol adherence rates are similar between superiority and noninferiority trials published in three high impact medical journals. Despite this, we observed greater hypothesis confirmation among noninferiority trials. We speculate that publication bias, lenient noninferiority margins and other sources of bias may contribute to this finding. Further study is needed to identify the reasons for this observed difference.