1. Clinical trials

Question 1

you should only conduct a trial if in ‘clinical equipoise’ what does this mean?

Answer 1

uncertainty over best treatment for patients

Question 2

double dummy technique

Answer 2

used when blinding is difficult, give both sets of patients 2 treatments, of which 1 is a placebo in each group

Question 3

define confounding

Answer 3

factor associated with disease and outcome of interest, separately to risk factor being investigated

Question 4

define bias

Answer 4

systematic distortion in allocation/measurement

Question 5

how to reduce confounding

Answer 5

randomisation

Question 6

how to reduce bias

Answer 6

randomisation eliminates selection bias

blinding reduces outcome measurement bias