University of Western Australia: Bias Minimisation, randomisation and blinding

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• Format Texts
• Language/s English
• Target Audience Further education
• Difficulty Introductory

Key Concepts addressed

• 2-1a Comparison groups should be similar
• 2-1d People should not know which treatment they get
• 2-1g All should be followed up
• 3-2a Do the outcomes measured matter to you?
• 1-2f Consider all of the relevant fair comparisons
• 2-3f Confidence intervals should be reported

Details

Bias minimisation; Study Methodology

• Randomisation eliminates investigator bias in allocating patients to different treatment arms.
• Blinding can avoid bias due to patient or observer knowledge of treatment allocation. Blinding can be through use of placebo or sham treatment. In a single blind study, only the patient or observer is unaware of the treatment allocation.

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