Suny Downstate; Randomized Controlled Studies

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• Format Texts
• Language/s English
• Target Audience Further education
• EBM Stage 3 - Appraising evidence
• Duration <5 mins
• Difficulty Introductory

Key Concepts addressed

• 2-1a Comparison groups should be similar
• 1-2e Comparisons are needed to identify treatment effects

Details

A randomized controlled study is one in which:

1. There are two groups, one treatment group and one control group. The treatment group receives the treatment under investigation, and the control group receives either no treatment or some standard default treatment.
2. Patients are randomly assigned to all groups.

Assigning patients at random reduces the risk of bias and increases the probability that differences between the groups can be attributed to the treatment.

Read more

Suny Downstate Medical Center, EBM Resources.