Control Groups Flashcards
What is a concurrent control group?
Could receive no treatment
Could receive placebo treatment
Could receive alternative treatment (current best available)
What is a historical control group?
Group of patients identified retrospectively that were treated before a current intervention became available
Possible confounding factors
What is the placebo effect?
Patients will improve if the believe that a treatment they receive will help them even if the treatment has no therapeutic effect
How can we control for the placebo effect?
Include a placebo control group
Makes sure that any improvement is due to treatment rather than placebo effect
How do we allocate participants to concurrent control groups?
Random allocation/ assignment
Every participant has an equal chance of being assigned to any of the groups that are being studied through random chance or randomisation
Randomisation means there is no systematic bias in the allocation of participants
What is blinding?
Concealment of information from participants and/ or researchers about which participants are in each group
What is single blinding?
Subjects OR researchers are unaware of treatments
What is double blinding?
Subjects AND researchers unaware of group allocation of participants
