Linked Life Data

11963450

Source:http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/id/11963450

Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
1
pubmed:dateCreated
2002-4-19
pubmed:abstractText
Comprehensive palliative care programs are often implemented on a community level, and to evaluate such interventions, randomization by cluster (community) may be the only feasible method. In trials randomizing individual subjects, the importance of proper concealment has been stressed. In cluster randomized trials, however, concealment of individual patient allocation is often impossible. The following risk of selection bias has been given little attention. In the present study, comparing palliative care to conventional care, community health care districts were defined as clusters and randomized. The patients' treatment assignment was determined by the allocation of the cluster in which they resided, and hence predictable by their address. A biased selection based on practical considerations related to patients' diagnoses and hospital departments was suspected. To explore this, cancer diagnoses were grouped according to local tradition for sharing of treatment responsibility among hospital departments. A significant difference between trial arms in distribution of these groups was revealed and strongly supported our suspicion. The finding carries an important message to future researchers: when using cluster randomization, any evidence of selection bias should be carefully checked and reported.
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
Jan
pubmed:issn
0269-2163
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Print
pubmed:volume
16
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
43-9
pubmed:dateRevised
2006-11-15
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
2002
pubmed:articleTitle
Lack of concealment may lead to selection bias in cluster randomized trials of palliative care.
pubmed:affiliation
Unit of Applied Clinical Research, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim N-7006, Norway. mjordhoy@online.no
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Clinical Trial, Randomized Controlled Trial, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't