title: Empirical evaluation of the generalizability of the sample from the multimodal treatment study for ADHD.
abstract: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are criticized for the questionable generalizability of their patient samples to real world populations. This study compared the demographic and clinical characteristics of children from the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD (MTA) to those from the NIMH Methods for the Epidemiology of Child and Adolescent Mental Disorders (MECA) Study and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). On the whole, we found no compelling evidence against the representativeness of the MTA sample, but the limited power from MECA and NHANES may have lead to noteworthy differences between datasets being statistically nonsignificant.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, The Ohio State University, 899 East Broad Street, 3rd Floor, Columbus, OH 43205, USA. stevensj@chi.osu.edu
authors.forename: Jack
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Stevens
authors.forename: Kelly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kelleher
authors.forename: Joel
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Greenhouse
authors.forename: Guanmin
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Huiyun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xiang
authors.forename: Eloise
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kaizar
authors.forename: Peter S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Jensen
authors.forename: L Eugene
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Arnold
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy*; D002170:Canada / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D036262:Empirical Research; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology