Endgames

Statistical question

Study design

BMJ 2009; 338 doi: 10.1136/bmj.b2381 (Published 17 June 2009)
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b2381

Access to the full text of this article requires a subscription or payment. Please log in or subscribe below.

  1. Philip Sedgwick, senior lecturer in medical statistics
  1. 1Centre for Medical and Healthcare Education, St George’s, University of London, London SW17 0RE
  1. p.sedgwick{at}sgul.ac.uk

    A clinical trial investigated the effectiveness of topical versus oral ibuprofen for chronic knee pain in people over 50. In designing a trial to decide the best treatment approach, which answer best describes how confounding could be minimised?

    • a) Double blind trial

    • b) Intention to treat analyses

    • c) Matching by age and sex

    • d) Randomisation of research participants

    Answer

    d—Randomisation means that all individuals have the same probability of being allocated to …

    Access to the full text of this article requires a subscription or payment

    Subscribe

    Article access

    Article access for 1 day

    Purchase this article for £20 $30 €32*

    The PDF version can be downloaded as your personal record

    * Prices do not include VAT

    Rapid responses

    THIS WEEK'S POLL

    BMJ most popular