Clinical trial design issues: at least 10 things you should look for in clinical trials.

@article{citeulike:2882356, abstract = {Randomized controlled trials remain the gold standard study design and yield the highest level of scientific credence. However, recognition of the limitations of the randomized controlled trial is important. This review highlights 10 potentially problematic areas one should carefully assess when performing or reading an article reporting the results of a randomized controlled trial, problematic areas that can affect the outcome of the trial and therefore mislead the reader. These areas include ethical issues, eligibility criteria, masking (blinding), randomization, analytic methods, the selection of subjects for the interventional and comparison groups, selection of end points, and the interpretation of the results. Each of these is discussed, and examples of published articles are used to highlight the main points.}, address = {Division of Preventive Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA.}, author = {Glasser, S. P. and Howard, G. }, citeulike-article-id = {2882356}, doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0091270006290336}, issn = {0091-2700}, journal = {Journal of clinical pharmacology}, keywords = {rct}, month = {October}, number = {10}, pages = {1106--1115}, posted-at = {2008-06-11 10:39:15}, priority = {2}, title = {Clinical trial design issues: at least 10 things you should look for in clinical trials.}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0091270006290336}, volume = {46}, year = {2006} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:2882356 L3 - citeulike-article-id:2882356 TI - Clinical trial design issues: at least 10 things you should look for in clinical trials. JF - Journal of clinical pharmacology VL - 46 IS - 10 SP - 1106 EP - 1115 AD - Division of Preventive Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA. SN - 0091-2700 N2 - Randomized controlled trials remain the gold standard study design and yield the highest level of scientific credence. However, recognition of the limitations of the randomized controlled trial is important. This review highlights 10 potentially problematic areas one should carefully assess when performing or reading an article reporting the results of a randomized controlled trial, problematic areas that can affect the outcome of the trial and therefore mislead the reader. These areas include ethical issues, eligibility criteria, masking (blinding), randomization, analytic methods, the selection of subjects for the interventional and comparison groups, selection of end points, and the interpretation of the results. Each of these is discussed, and examples of published articles are used to highlight the main points. KW - rct AU - Glasser, SP AU - Howard, G PY - 2006/10// UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0091270006290336 ER -