Where have all the pilot studies gone? A follow-up on 30 years of pilot studies in Clinical Rehabilitation:

Introduction:Pilot studies are meritorious for determining the feasibility of a definitive clinical trial in terms of conduct and potential for efficacy, but their possible applications for planning a future trial are not always fully realized. The purpose of this review was to estimate the extent to which pilot/feasibility studies: (i) addressed needed objectives; (ii) led to definitive trials; and (iii) whether the subsequent undertaking of a definitive trial was influenced by the strength of the evidence of outcome improvement.Methods:Trials published in the journal Clinical Rehabilitation, since its inception, were eligible if the word ‘pilot’ or ‘feasibility’ was specified somewhere in the article. A total of 191 studies were reviewed, results were summarized descriptively, and between-group effect sizes were computed.Results:The specific purposes of piloting were stated in only 58% (n = 110) of the studies. The most frequent purpose was to estimate the potential for efficacy (85%), followed by testi...