[Quality of the structured abstracts presented at a congress].
OBJECTIVE
To assess and compare quality of abstracts presented at a medical congress (XIV Congresso da Sociedade Brasileira de Infectologia, November, 2005). The hypothesis is that material of better quality is chosen for oral presentation.


METHODS
All the 63 abstracts selected for oral presentation were compared with a random sample (n=63) of the 664 abstracts registered as poster presentations. Quality was measured by a structured questionnaire comprised of 33 criteria, distributed in eight categories: purpose, research design, setting, subjects, intervention, measurement, results and conclusions. The questionnaire was applied by one of the authors who were not blind to the objective of the study. The final score could range from 0 (bad) to 1 (excellent).


RESULTS
Abstracts quality was considered moderately good. The overall mean quality scores were 0.60 and 0.62 respectively, for poster and oral presentation (p = 0.086). The criteria rated poorly were: subjects, variable measurements, location and conclusion.


CONCLUSIONS
The tested hypothesis of better quality in abstracts selected for oral presentation has not been confirmed. It is recommended that organizers of the congresses the use of objective quality criteria to select the form of presentation while improving on quality.
dos Santos
Edilson F
EF
Fundação de Ensino e Pesquisa em Ciências da Saúde, Brasília, DF. edilson.floriano@gmail.com
Pereira
Maurício G
MG
D000043:Abstracting and Indexing / Q000592:standards*; D001296:Audiovisual Aids; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003226:Congresses as Topic; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D006801:Humans; D012955:Societies, Medical; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires