What are types of blinding?

Types of blinding

Type	Description
Single blind or single-masked	Only the participant is unaware of the treatment they receive
Double blind or double-masked	The participant and the clinicians / data collectors are unaware of the treatment the participant receives

What does blinding mean in research?

If you’ve done a taste test and selected ‘Cola X’ over ‘Cola Y,’ then you’ve already experienced what scientists call “blinding.” Blinding, in research, refers to a practice where study participants are prevented from knowing certain information that may somehow influence them—thereby tainting the results.

What is the difference between blinding and masking in clinical trials?

“Masking” (or “blinding”) refers to the steps taken to ensure that all persons involved in a trial are unaware of the type of treatment that each participant receives. Blinding can also be extended to include other personnel and data analysts.

Why use blinding in clinical trials?

Blinding is used in Clinical Trials to remove any bias that can be caused intentionally or unintentionally if participants or the research team are aware of who is receiving an active or placebo treatment.

What is the benefit of blinding in clinical trials?

Blinding of the trial Blinding is used to prevent conscious or unconscious bias in the design of a clinical trial and how it is carried out. This is important because bias can affect recruitment and allocation, care, attitudes, assessments, etc.

Why is blinding not possible?

In many such studies blinding is impossible because exposure can be discovered only by interviewing the study participants, who obviously know whether or not they are a case.

Is blinding always possible?

Blinding is certainly not always easy or possible. In trials of different styles of patient management, surgical procedures, or alternative therapies, full blinding is often impossible. In a double blind trial it is implicit that the assessment of patient outcome is done in ignorance of the treatment received.

What does single blinding prevent?

In a single blind study, the participants in the clinical trial do not know if they are receiving the placebo or the real treatment. This is done to reduce the risk of errors, since some participants might produce spurious results if they know that they are taking the placebo or medication.

Does blinding reduce confounding?

The purpose of blinding is to minimise bias. Random assignment of participants to the different groups only helps to eliminate confounding variables present at the time of randomisation, thereby reducing selection bias. It does not, however, prevent differences from developing between the groups afterwards.

Does blinding reduce bias?

Blinding aims to reduce the risk of bias that can be caused by an awareness of group assignment. With blinding, out- comes can be attributed to the intervention itself and not influenced by behaviour or assessment of outcomes that can result purely from knowledge of group allocation. Blinding is not a simple procedure.

Is blinding necessary in clinical trials?

Blinding is an important methodologic feature of RCTs to minimize bias and maximize the validity of the results. Researchers should strive to blind participants, surgeons, other practitioners, data collectors, outcome adjudicators, data analysts and any other individuals involved in the trial.

Is blinding necessary for RCT?

What is a double blind clinical trial?

Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial. Thus, a double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial is a medical study involving human participants in which neither side knows who’s getting what treatment and placebo are given to a control group. Before getting to this stage, researchers often perform animal studies,…

What is a double-dummy clinical trial?

double dummy. A technique for retaining the blinding of a clinical trial, where the two treatments cannot be made identical.

What is the definition of triple blind study?

triple-blinded study. triple-blind study. A study in which knowledge of the treatment assignment(s) is concealed from the people who organise and analyse the data of a study as well as from subjects and investigators.