Defining, identifying, and evaluating clinical trials of stuttering treatments: A tutorial for clinicians

Purpose: To develop a method for clinicians to evaluate stuttering treatment efficacy research with very little burden of work. Method: The clinical trial is the most fundamental, clinically interpretable, and useful output unit of stuttering treatment research. We define a clinical trial of a stuttering treatment and specify 3 levels of clinical trials evidence. We use this taxonomy to identify and evaluate clinical trials of stuttering treatment. Our taxonomy draws on 2 fundamental principles of clinical trials used to evaluate health care: randomization and effect size. Results: Published clinical trials of stuttering treatments were identified and allocated to 1 of 3 levels of evidence. Conclusions: We outline a 3-step, semi-automated, Internet-based method to identify the publication of a report of stuttering treatment efficacy. For a report identified as such, a 10-item checklist is applied to verify its status as a clinical trial and to allocate it to 1 of 3 levels of clinical trials evidence. The present taxonomy reduces the burden of work of a 136-item checklist in an existing taxonomy.