RCT

RCT

Exp design
'gold standard' of study designs
study participants are randomised
1. Exp group
2. Control group
3. Compare and note differences in outcomes
4. followed up for the variables/outcomes of interest.
5. randomly assigned to groups in order to receive different interventions
  1. Reduce bias
used to compare new treatments or interventions with alternative or existing treatments
1. Like drugs
Randomisation
1. difficult to create equal groups.
  1. genetic and environmental variations in human participants
  2. Solution- create approx equal groups
    1. To be effective- need LARGE number of participants
Community intervention trial
1. conducted in public health where communities rather than individuals comprise the treatment groups.
  1. directed at group behaviours as well as at individual level behaviours
2. used when diseases that have their origins in socio-environmental conditions can be influenced by the intervention chosen
3. i.e for many years Japan did not use the pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine, so it was then an appropriate country for testing the community level effectiveness of new whooping cough vaccines (i.e. the effect of the vaccine in a large population could be tested).
cannot be used for all research because it may be unnecessary, inappropriate, impossible or inadequate.
1. Observational research
most rigorous study designs, they need to be well conducted to avoid bias and confounding

Resource summary

	Created by shirley.ha about 11 years ago