Double rct essay

RCTs are the gold standard for clinically testing treatments and drugs. The researcher assigns participants to experimental and placebo groups randomly, removing any selection bias from the sample. Selection bias can skew results in a way that benefits a researcher or the body funding the study at the expense of scientific integrity.

One way to classify RCTs is by study design. From most to least common in the healthcare literature, the major categories of RCT study designs are: Parallel-group – each participant is randomly assigned to a group, and all the participants in the group receive (or do not receive) an intervention.

Randomization removes bias and truly allows for a direct comparison between two groups in a trial, providing a real representation of how the drug will react with the wider population after distribution. An RCT will have a control group to which the researchers will randomly assign people.

Both participants and research scientists can influence results unless the researchers assign participants to groups at random. Scientists refer to this skewing of results as selection bias. An RCT gets rid of selection bias by removing the element of choice.