The CROWN Initiative: Journal editors lead the way in the effort to standardise outcome measures in women’s health research

Fifty-six of the top journals in the field of obstetrics and gynaecology are leading the CROWN Initiative – an international effort to encourage researchers to collect and report core outcome sets in studies of key conditions in women’s health. A recent systematic review (Meher 2014) found that 103 randomised trials of interventions to prevent pre-term birth reported no fewer than 72 different outcomes. This variability makes it almost impossible to synthesise the evidence from trials on the same topic, and highlights the urgent need for the development of core outcome measures not only in this field, but in others. The COMET Initiative has been promoting the development of core outcome measures since its launch in January 2010 and is a key supporter of the CROWN Initiative.

1. Meher S, Alfirevic Z. Choice of primary outcomes in randomised trials and systematic reviews evaluating interventions for preterm birth prevention: a systematic review. BJOG 2014; DOI: 10.1111/1471-0528.12593