Motrial: An international database of public health trials

Abstract

Abstract Background Trials and intervention studies are the most reliable source of evidence on the effectiveness, safety, and cost-effectiveness of interventions aimed to prevent, care, or cure health conditions. The number of these pragmatic trials has increased exponentially since 2000 in the field of non-pharmacological interventions (NPIs) such as behavioural interventions. The methodology was improved, optimized, and standardized with the contribution of several international organisations such as CONSORT, SPIRIT, TIDieR, PRISMA, and IBTN. Meta-analyses and systematic reviews are more conclusive nowadays. The main difficulty in carrying out systematic reviews in public health and behavioral interventions is the exhaustivity of queries. Publications are not always identified in classic biomedical databases (e.g. PubMed, Embase) or discipline databases (e.g. PsycINFO). Publishing platforms offer a new format to authors such as Open Access journals (e.g. PLOS One, Scientific Reports, Helyion, JAMA Network Open), Open Archives (e.g. ARXIV, HAL), or independent supports sourced from the academic and research community (e.g. The Conversation). Data collection for relevant study articles is more and more difficult, fastidious, and at risk of biases. Results The Plateforme CEPS, which has the general goal of encouraging intervention studies on NPIs, has created in 2018 a search engine that makes it easier to find relevant trials. Motrial distinguishes the main publication from secondary publications and duplicates. It indicates whether the trial has been declared to an ethics committee, registered to the competent authorities, and received funding. This academic search engine in English is free. Each request can be saved, modified, and completed. Conclusions The open science and collaborative meta-search engine Motrial helps researchers to find relevant articles of pragmatic studies assessing public health and behavioural interventions (www.motrial.fr).