@jameslindlibrary.bsky.social
Illustrating the development of fair tests of treatments in health care through history.
@jameslindlibrary.bsky.socialThe PROSPER trial featured in the report of the Lancet Global Eye Health Commission in 2021, with the associated Lancet website (www.thelancet.com/commissions/global-eye-health) showing a picture of a tea worker in India, in direct reference to the trial. 8/8
@jameslindlibrary.bsky.socialThis relative productivity increase was as large or larger than that reported by any other health intervention trial in a low or middle income country. It was achieved at a total delivery cost of just US$ 10.20 per participant. 7/8
#LMIC
@jameslindlibrary.bsky.socialThere was a significantly greater increase in mean productivity in the intervention group compared to the control group. This was a difference of >5 kg/day or 22% more tea picked daily on average. The effect was even greater (>30%) among workers over 50 years of age. 6/8
@jameslindlibrary.bsky.socialTo keep the PROSPER trial simple and pragmatic, it used routinely collected data on the weight of tea picked by each participant to assess the effect of giving them glasses. 5/8
@jameslindlibrary.bsky.socialThe workers were randomly allocated to receive free glasses to correct their vision immediately or to form a control group who received glasses after the 11-week evaluation period.
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan... 4/8
@jameslindlibrary.bsky.socialThe trial was done in collaboration with three leading global eye health NGOs: Orbis International, Clearly and VisionSpring. It studied providing glasses to correct presbyopia among 751 tea workers recruited in Assam (India) during July 2017. 3/8 @OrbisIntl @VisionSpring @ClearlyWorld
@jameslindlibrary.bsky.socialPROSPER (PROductivity Study of Presbyopia Elimination in Rural-dwellers) was the first trial of vision improvement and work productivity in presbyopia, the age-related decline in near vision. It drew the headline “Wear glasses. Earn more” in @TheEconomist economist.com/science-and-... 2/8
@jameslindlibrary.bsky.socialIn the week of World Sight Day (www.iapb.world/world_sight_...), this month’s #TrialsTuesday is a randomised trial showing the benefits of providing free glasses to tea pickers in India with poor vision.
The trial was called PROSPER. 1/8
@jameslindlibrary.bsky.socialIt passed the milestone (or millstone?) of 500,000 registrations this month and you can read more about its place in the history of systematic reviews in in the article Mike Clarke wrote for me 👇
www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/his...
@jameslindlibrary.bsky.social1/2 PROSPERO, as a prospective register for systematic reviews, is one of the most important developments in the history of systematic reviews. It was launched in 2011 and 1,000 reviews were registered in the first year. That many are now registered every 3 days...
www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/
@jameslindlibrary.bsky.socialLearn about the history of tools to assess risk of bias in randomised trials in my new article 👇from Rafael Pacheco and Rachel Riera in Sao Paolo, Brazil
www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/a-h...
#RiskOfBias #SaoPaolo #Brazil #RCT #EBHC #EBM #EvidenceSynthsis #MedHist #HistoryOfMedicine
@jameslindlibrary.bsky.socialAhoy! Ways to recruit people to randomised trials can themselves be tested in randomised trials. A newly updated Cochrane Review looks back at the evidence from 91 studies with more than 175,000 participants, which tested 65 recruitment strategies.
www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10....
