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Randomization in a two armed clinical trial: an overview of different randomization techniques

Randomization is the key element of any sensible clinical trial. It is the only way we can be sure that the patients have been allocated into the treatment groups without bias and that the treatment groups are almost similar before the start of the trial. The randomization schemes used to allocate patients into the treatment groups play a role in achieving this goal. This study uses SAS simulations to do categorical data analysis and comparison of differences between two main randomization schemes namely unrestricted and restricted randomization in dental studies where there are small samples, i.e. simple randomization and the minimization method respectively. Results show that minimization produces almost equally sized treatment groups, but simple randomization is weak in balancing prognostic factors. Nevertheless, simple randomization can also produce balanced groups even in small samples, by chance. Statistical power is also improved when minimization is used than in simple randomization, but bigger samples might be needed to boost the power.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufh/vital:11781
Date January 2011
CreatorsBatidzirai, Jesca Mercy
PublisherUniversity of Fort Hare, Faculty of Science & Agriculture
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis, Masters, MSc (Biostatistics and Epidemiology)
Format70 leaves; 30 cm, pdf
RightsUniversity of Fort Hare

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