Thread by @jennifer_s_lees

1/7🔥ATTENTION #TRIALISTS
#tweetorial on our #openaccess paper @BMJMedicine

👉Trials of new medicines often include younger, healthier people than in general population
👉There may be concern that older people with multiple medical conditions may be less able to complete #trials

https://twitter.com/BMJMedicine/status/1567588599377403906

2/7
👉We looked at individual participant-level data from 92 trials of 20 medical conditions testing 17 different drug classes
👉We assessed whether age, sex and number of medical conditions was associated with attrition (dropout) from these trials

3/7
The *bad* news 😬
Individuals with multimorbidity are less likely to complete participation in clinical trials

The *good* news 😅
The effect is modest (and consistent across medical conditions and drug classes)

4/7
👉Men ♂️were *not* less likely than women♀️to complete participation in #trials
👉Age (accounting for sex) may be associated with attrition...

5/7 What does this mean?

It may be possible to improve representation of older patients and those with multiple medical conditions in #trials:

✅improving external validity
✅*without* prohibitive increases in attrition

6/7
Lots of work. Thanks to funders @wellcometrust @CSO_Scotland and absolutely top team @BMJMedicine who gave us some great suggestions.

7/7 Co-authors and other worthy mentions: @GilliesKatie @PHanlon17 @FrancesMair @WeltonNicky and the real brains 🧠*David McAllister*

@UofGSCMH @UofGSHW