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Allocation Concealment And Blinding

Decent Essays

3a. Describe each concept and explain the difference between allocation concealment and blinding.
Allocation concealment refers to the concept of subjects, health care providers and investigators not knowing which group the subject will be a part of before the start of the trial. Simply put, allocation concealment refers to the not knowing the next sequence of the trial. Blinding, on the other hand, refers to the attempt to keep the groups (such as an active group or placebo group) unknown or which is easily discernible by the subjects. Blinding can be for the participants, investigators, healthcare provider, data collectors, or the research assessors (Viera & Bangdiwala, 2007). The simplest difference between allocation concealment and blinding …show more content…

While to what extent this bias affects the outcome is not measured, the effect certainly is there. Mainly, there exists a restriction in the generalizability of the finding, especially those trials that relate to alternative medicine (Hróbjartsson et al., 2014). When patients are more aware of their treatment, the way they report their symptoms may vary, adversely even the quality of the doctor-patient relationship is reduced. This also leads to disproportionate rates of attrition and the placebo effect. The rates of attrition of patients are always found to be higher where they are non-blinded (Hróbjartsson et al., 2014). Bias has mainly reported occurring due to a combination of response bias, placebo effect, and attrition. Response bias refers to the methods in which the patient response to the intervention. For example, the patient may be disappointed to know that he is in the control group and hence may become disinterested and more inclined to leave. This leads to attrition of the participants. Further, the patient may experience the “placebo effect” (Sedgwick, 2013). The placebo effect refers to the presumed benefits of the placebo drug, which is not caused by the drug itself, but is due to the patient’s belief in the treatment (Colloca & Benedetti,

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