Publication Rate of Abstracts Presented at AAPOS Annual Meetings: From Conference Abstract to Full-Text Article

Purpose: To review and analyze abstracts presented at American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (AAPOS) annual meetings, and to identify publication rates and potential predictive factors for better outcomes.Methods: All abstracts accepted for presentation at AAPOS annual meetings from 2013 to 2017 were examined. A comprehensive literature search via PubMed and Scopus was conducted to identify whether the abstracts had been published as full text. A multivariate analysis was achieved to assess the factors related to successful publication, and a Kaplan-Meier analysis was performed to evaluate the publication time course of abstracts.Results: Of 819 analyzed abstracts, 437 (53%) were published in peer-reviewed journals with a median impact factor of 2.7. The overall mean time to publication was 3 +/- 2.2 years. The multivariate analysis revealed that abstracts were more likely to be published if they were accepted at an AAPOS annual meeting as an oral paper (P < .001), if they were prospective (P > .001) and multicenter (P = .013) studies, and if they had strabismus, retina, and vitreous disorders and diagnosis as main topics (P = .022). The Kaplan-Meier analyses revealed significant differences in the publication time distribution for multicenter versus single-center abstracts and paper versus poster and e-poster (P < .05).Conclusions: More than half of the abstracts accepted for presentation at the AAPOS annual meetings were published in peer-reviewed journals within 3 years from submission to the meeting. The factors associated with a higher publication rate were the prospective study design, multicentricity, and presentation at the meeting as an oral paper.