Pediatrics
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Review Comparative Study
Empirical evaluation of age groups and age-subgroup analyses in pediatric randomized trials and pediatric meta-analyses.
An important step toward improvement of the conduct of pediatric clinical research is the standardization of the ages of children to be included in pediatric trials and the optimal age-subgroups to be analyzed. ⋯ We observed large variability in the age ranges and age-subgroups of children included in recent pediatric trials and meta-analyses. Despite the limited available data, some age-subgroup differences were noted. The rationale for the selection of particular age-subgroups deserves further study.