Randomised controlled trials and changing public health practice

Randomised controlled trials and changing public health practice

One reason for doing randomised controlled trials (RCTs) is that experiments can be convincing. Early epidemiological experimenters, such as Jenner and the smallpox vaccine and Snow and his famous Broad Street pump handle, already knew the answer they were demonstrating; they used the experiments as knowledge translation devices to convince others.More sophisticated modern experiments include c...

Epidemiology in practice: randomised controlled trials.

Randomised controlled trials in general practice.

This course addresses methods in performing randomised controlled trials in general practice with a special emphasize on cluster randomised trials. Students will develop an understanding of how to plan, implement, analyze, report and evaluate RCTs. Original research will be presented by principal investigators, followed by discussions of papers with focus on design options and analytic strategi...

Randomised controlled trials in general practice: time for international collaboration.

Unintentional injury to children aged under 5 caused 428 300 deaths globally in 1990. Not surprisingly, the majority are in the developing world, with 740 deaths annually per million of the population aged less than 5, compared with 249 per million a year in developed countries. However, injuries account for 15.6% of deaths after the perinatal period in this age group in the developed regions, ...

Randomised controlled trials – almost the best available evidence for practice

1990). It includes random sampling, random assignment of patients to groups and testing for significant differences. It often involves testing hypotheses, it is very structured and uses numbers to present results. Research experiments are one type of quantitative research and are characterised by the researcher, systematically and rigorously studying cause-and-effect relationships between varia...