Randomized controlled trial/Related Articles

See also changes related to Randomized controlled trial, or pages that link to Randomized controlled trial or to this page or whose text contains "Randomized controlled trial".

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Parent topics

• Evidence-based medicine [r]: The conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients. ^[e]

Methods of mathematical statistics

• Hypothesis testing [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Random sample [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Factor analysis [r]: Statistical technique used to explain variability among observed random variables in terms of fewer unobserved random variables called factors. ^[e]

Subtopics

• Cross-over studies [r]: Studies comparing two or more treatments or interventions in which the subjects or patients, upon completion of the course of one treatment, are switched to another. In the case of two treatments, A and B, half the subjects are randomly allocated to receive these in the order A, B and half to receive them in the order B, A. A criticism of this design is that effects of the first treatment may carry over into the period when the second is given (Last, A Dictionary of Epidemiology, 2d ed). ^[e]
• Double-blind studies [r]: "A method of studying a drug or procedure in which both the subjects and investigators are kept unaware of who is actually getting which specific treatment." (Anonymous (2024), Double-blind studies (English). Medical Subject Headings. U.S. National Library of Medicine.) ^[e]
• Single-blind studies [r]: A method in which either the observer(s) or the subject(s) is kept ignorant of the group to which the subjects are assigned. ^[e]

Other related topics

• Case-control studies [r]: Studies which start with the identification of persons with a disease of interest and a control (comparison, referent) group without the disease. The relationship of an attribute to the disease is examined by comparing diseased and non-diseased persons with regard to the frequency or levels of the attribute in each group. ^[e]
• Cohort studies [r]: Studies in which subsets of a defined population are identified. These groups may or may not be exposed to factors hypothesized to influence the probability of the occurrence of a particular disease or other outcome. Cohorts are defined populations which, as a whole, are followed in an attempt to determine distinguishing subgroup characteristics. ^[e]
• Cross-sectional studies [r]: Studies in which the presence or absence of disease or other health-related variables are determined in each member of the study population or in a representative sample at one particular time. This contrasts with longitudinal studies which are followed over a period of time. ^[e]
• Longitudinal studies [r]: Studies in which variables relating to an individual or group of individuals are assessed over a period of time. ^[e]
• Placebo [r]: A treatment or drug, administered by, or at the orders of, a health professional, that the professional knows will have no physiologic effect ^[e]
• Placebo effect [r]: the effect of a medical treatment that is attributable to an expectation that the treatment will have an effect ^[e]
• Prospective studies [r]: Observation of a population for a sufficient number of persons over a sufficient number of years to generate incidence or mortality rates subsequent to the selection of the study group. ^[e]
• Retrospective studies [r]: Studies used to test etiologic hypotheses in which inferences about an exposure to putative causal factors are derived from data relating to characteristics of persons under study or to events or experiences in their past. The essential feature is that some of the persons under study have the disease or outcome of interest and their characteristics are compared with those of unaffected persons. ^[e]
• Sham treatment [r]: Use of some parts of a treatment that do have physical effects on a subject, which are intended to act as placebo where it is impossible to have a completely neutral equivalent to the treatment. While a pill with no active ingredients can be a placebo, for surgery, sham surgery would require at least anesthesia and an incision. ^[e]