Adherence to the Consort Statement in the Reporting of Open Access Randomized Controlled Trials Published from 2020- 2024 in Public Health Dentistry Journals

Background Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are fundamental to evidence-based dentistry; however, their value depends on transparent and complete reporting. The CONSORT 2010 checklist aims to improve reporting quality, but adherence in public health dentistry is unclear. Objective To assess adherence to the CONSORT 2010 checklist among open-access RCTs published in public health dentistry journals from 2020 to 2024. Methods This cross-sectional study evaluated 80 open-access randomized controlled trials published over a 5-year period in seven public health dentistry journals. Each trial was evaluated against a subdivided 51-items CONSORT 2010 checklist. Descriptive statistics summarized adherence, and chi-square tests examined differences over the study period was performed using SPSS 27.0 version, with significance set at p < 0.05. Results High adherence (mean ± SD ≈ 1.00) was found for structured summaries, background, eligibility criteria, interventions, and statistical methods. Moderate adherence (means 1.3–1.5) was observed for randomization and allocation concealment, while blinding and trial identification in titles had the lowest compliance (1.18 ± 0.38). Reporting of secondary outcomes, outcome assessment, and trial registration improved significantly over time (p < 0.05). Adherence varied substantially across journals, highlighting inconsistency in reporting key methodological items. Conclusions Although general trial details are well reported, critical methodological components remain underreported in public health dentistry RCTs. Strengthening journal policies on CONSORT adherence, adopting structured manuscript templates, and author training are necessary to improve transparency, reliability, and reproducibility of dental clinical research.