A free, animated consort flow diagram you can read here or embed on any website, from Scrollchart.
CONSORT Flow Diagram
The CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) flow diagram documents the journey of participants through a randomized controlled trial. At the top, a single box records the number assessed for eligibility. Below it, exclusions are listed with reasons. The remaining participants are randomized and then split into two parallel arms: intervention and control. Each arm tracks how many received the allocated treatment, how many were lost to follow-up or discontinued, and how many were included in the final analysis.
CONSORT was developed by an international working group and published in 1996, with subsequent revisions. The diagram is now required by most high-impact medical and psychology journals as part of trial reporting, because it makes attrition and exclusions transparent rather than buried in prose.
Read top to bottom. Numbers decrease at every box because participants drop out, are excluded, or are lost to follow-up. At the randomization step the single flow splits into two parallel columns, one per arm. Each column should account for every participant: the number allocated must equal the number who received treatment plus those who did not, plus those lost to follow-up, summing to the number analyzed.
Key things to check: How large was the gap between assessed and randomized? Large gaps suggest restrictive inclusion criteria or poor recruitment, which may limit generalizability. Were the two arms similar in dropout rates and reasons? Differential dropout can introduce bias even in a well-randomized trial. Was the analysis "intention-to-treat" (all randomized participants counted in their assigned arm regardless of adherence) or "per-protocol" (only those who completed the protocol)? The diagram alone does not answer that; the methods section must.
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Source & accuracy
This consort flow diagram is an editorial illustration built to represent the concept accurately. Where it shows figures, they are typical or representative values chosen to make the relationship clear, not a single underlying dataset. The diagram and its explainer are reviewed and maintained centrally, and updated over time as understanding improves.
Tracking participants through trial phases
CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) flow diagrams standardize how trial participation is reported. The diagram flows top to bottom: first, eligible participants assessed and enrollment numbers; second, those randomized to treatment arms; third, participants receiving intended treatment and losses; finally, those analyzed in the primary analysis. Each drop represents attrition, with counts and reasons noted.
The flow reveals trial quality and loss-to-follow-up patterns. Trials with few dropouts and nearly all randomized participants analyzed strengthen credibility. Trials losing many participants before analysis introduce bias: if dropouts differ systematically between arms (e.g., side effects cause higher dropout in active treatment), the trial no longer compares equivalent groups.
Intention-to-treat analysis and dropout impact
CONSORT encourages intention-to-treat analysis: all randomized participants analyzed in assigned arms, even if they never took treatment or switched arms. This preserves the baseline balance created by randomization. Alternatively, per-protocol analysis (analyzing only those completing treatment) can remove this balance and introduce bias.
The flow diagram makes dropout transparent. Large gaps between randomization and analysis suggest loss-to-follow-up. Missing outcome data from dropouts are flagged; a trial reporting outcomes only on completers risks bias if dropout reasons relate to treatment effect. Sensitivity analysis assuming dropouts had poor outcomes tests robustness.
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Reference
What this is
A free, embeddable, animated consort flow diagram for any website.
Who uses it
Researchers & academics, Science journalists, Medical educators, Health journalists.
How to embed
Copy one line of HTML. No signup. No watermark. Works in WordPress, Webflow, Ghost, Substack, plain HTML.
File size
iframe embed, ~80 KB gzipped (loads on demand, does not block your page paint).
License
Free forever. Editorial explainer text included; updated centrally over time.
Copy the universal HTML snippet, the WordPress shortcode, or an iframe fallback -
see the WordPress plugin page for details. Any format keeps
the same Core Web Vitals profile and the same explainer text.
By embedding, you acknowledge the diagram and explainer text are served from scrollchart.com and may be updated from time to time to reflect new research or to link to relevant sources within the explainer.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I get a free animated "CONSORT Flow Diagram" for my website?
Scrollchart provides "CONSORT Flow Diagram" as a free, embeddable animated diagram you can add to any website with one line of HTML. No signup is required and there is no watermark. The diagram and its explainer text are served from scrollchart.com, so the embed stays current without any maintenance on your end.
How do I embed a consort flow diagram in a blog post or article?
Paste the one-line HTML snippet from the Scrollchart diagram page into your post editor. It works in WordPress, Webflow, Ghost, and plain HTML with no plugin required. The animated diagram and its explainer text load from scrollchart.com and render directly in your page DOM.