The dependant variable is an outcome measure, measuring pain and functional ability of the condition.
How does it exactely look like? There exist different levels of measurement; categorical
like "dysfunctional versus functional"; ordered categorical like "no pain - mild pain - severe pain -
unbearable pain"; or interval scaled like " ° knee flexion". For different levels of the outcome
variable(s), different analyses are possible.
The research question is ‘Are isometric-eccentric contractions superior to eccentric contractions as treatment for patellar tendinopathy, a randomised control trial’ - may I ask why does the question matter?
How is superiority defined - which observations will show you whether one treatment is superior?
e.g. do you expect superiority already at 3 months or only in the long run?
By the way, is allocation to groups randomized, or are these natural groups?
Will additional patient variables be measured which could be used as co-variables
when predicting outcome and/or which could be used a strata (if patients are
randomized)?
Let’s suppose no patients would be lost.
Normally, a study application has to inform the reader how drop-outs will be dealt with.
It is not conceivable that all patients will complete a study over 12-months. The question
is, whether the rate of loss to follow-up is usually low in this kind of treatment study.
But anyway, if you assume that your reviewers will not mind, then we'll ignore this issue.
With kind regards
Karabiner