Evidence-appraisal glossary
CONSORT statement
CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) is a checklist and flow diagram that sets out what the report of a randomized controlled trial should tell readers, from how patients were randomized to how many were analyzed.
Also called: Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials, CONSORT checklist.
Many journals ask authors to follow CONSORT when they write up a randomized trial, so its 25 checklist items double as a reading guide: they point you to the allocation method, the pre-specified primary outcome, and the flow of participants through the study. A report that follows CONSORT is easier to appraise, but the checklist governs reporting quality, not the quality of the trial itself. A well-reported trial can still be small, biased, or underpowered.
Read the full Reading the Evidence blog.
This is a plain-language methodology definition for reading research. It is general education, not medical advice.