Abstract

CANEDO ANDALIA, Rubén et al. La Colaboración Cochrane en Cuba: Producción de ensayos clínicos en Iberoamérica. ACIMED [online]. 2004, vol.12, n.2. ISSN 1024-9435.

AIMS: To show the features of information flow on clinical trials published by Latin American authors, processed in Medline database from its beginning. METHODS: The clinical trial reports published by authors affiliated in institutions located on Latin American countries were identified using several search approaches designed for their retrieval. The characterization of clinical trial reports in the region, included the number of clinical trial published according to country, years, sources, journal country, type of publication, language, author and first author affiliation. RESULTS: A total of 4 191 clinical trial reports having as first author a specialist whose affiliation corresponded to an institution located in the studied region were identified.This figure represents the 0.97% of all 431 960 registered in Medline in the searching date. A number of three countries gathered the 70% of production: Brazil, Mexico and Argentina. Cuba was situated in the 6th place according to the number of clinical trials with a Cuban leadership. The total production of clinical trial reports in Latin America is similar to those found in Finland as a country. Since 1 987, where the first records of clinical trials appeared in Medline to year 2002, the production tended to increase slowly. The most productive institution were Sao Paulo and Chile Universities. The 4 191 reports found were distributed among 954 sources from 35 countries. The most productive source was "Revista Medica de Chile", with 21 records. The sources from the United States and United Kingdom gathered the 57.17% of the total number of trials found. That at the same time comprised the 77.76% of the trials as well as the 91.72% of the sources. Latin America, relegated to a third place, registered only a fifth part of trials and its sources hardly exceeded the 5%. The analyzed clinical trials were carried out on a higher number in adult than on adolescents, senior people and children, in the case of women, they were a slightly higher than men, without the US Goverment financial supports to compare therapies or different techniques, double blinded and prospective. The controlled alleatory trials comprised the 50.05% of the total number. Brazil leads the list of the most productive countries in this case with 763 reports. Brazil, Mexico and Argentina comprised almost the 70% of the total identified. English language was a total predominance among the reports studied. CONCLUSIONS: The clinical trial is currently considered as a choice method to prove the validity of a health care intervention. The generalization of an evidence based medicine depends, to a great extent, on its repeated application as an instrument to assess the experience gathered in a scientific research. The general agreement on the value of this methodology that propose the trial, also impose for all the personal interested in introducing their products, therapies, techniques, devices and equipment into the international market, the systematic use of this tool to show its consistent benefits.

Keywords : EVIDENCE-BASED MEDICINE [methods]; CLINICAL TRIAL; RESEARCH; DATABASES; MEDLINE; LATIN AMERICA.