Study designs: Part 5 – interventional studies (II)

Abstract

In the fifth piece of this series on research study designs, we continue the discussion on interventional studies (clinical trials), in which the investigator decides whether or not a particular participant receives the exposure (or intervention). In this article, we take a closer look at several features which are important to ensure that the findings of such a study represent the real effect of an intervention, such as allocation concealment, blinding, compliance to intervention, the use of co-interventions and participant dropout rate.

Keywords

• Clinical trials as topic
• random allocation
• research design
• treatment adherence and compliance