Читать книгу Evidence in Medicine - Iain K. Crombie - Страница 18

In clinical trials patients are assigned to different treatment groups using a sequence of random numbers. The process of randomisation produces two groups that, on average, are similar at baseline on factors such as severity and duration of disease. When the groups are similar at baseline, any differences between them at follow‐up will be due to the effect of the treatment. Deficiencies in the method of randomisation could cause imbalances at baseline, resulting in differences in outcomes between the groups that are unrelated to treatment. This section identifies the problems that frequently occur with treatment allocation.