randomised controlled trial

A trial in which participants are assigned by chance to receive either an experimental or control treatment. When randomisation is done properly, the effect of a treatment(s) can be studied in groups of people who are:
(1) the same at the outset, and
(2) treated the same way, except for the intervention(s) being studied. Any differences seen in the groups at the end can be attributed to the difference in treatment alone, and not to bias or chance.

References in periodicals archive ?

In addition, the authors' conclusions regarding enteral feeding, although attractive on a physiological basis and perhaps correct, remain unproven in the absence of high-quality, level one, randomised controlled trial evidence.

Controversies in stress ulcer bleeding prophylaxis arise from differences in the quality of the evidence

Reducing SFA consumption is recommended to reduce CHD, but there is little strong randomised controlled trial (RCT) evidence of CHD events and few guidelines for specific SFA substitutes.

Replacing saturated with polyunsaturated fat to cut heart disease risk

Analyses from the extended follow-up of participants in a male circumcision randomised controlled trial conducted in Kisumu, Kenya, indicate that the protective effect of male circumcision was sustained, and possibly strengthened, for at least 42 months.

Key facts on male circumcision

A new randomised controlled trial of the effectiveness of an intensive exercise program immediately after hospital has recently been published (Bulthuis 2007), and new studies examining the cost effectiveness of such programs should be done.

Short-term beneficial effects of physiotherapy exercise after knee arthroplasty for osteoarthritis

Effect of handwashing on child health: a randomised controlled trial.

Saving lives through global safe water

Effectiveness of ototopical antibiotics for chronic suppurative otitis media in Aboriginal children: A community-based, multicentre, double-blind randomised controlled trial.

Treatment of otologic disease in Australian Aboriginal children

Randomised controlled trial of labouring in water compared with standard augmentation for management of dystocia in first stage of labour, British Medical Journal, 2004, 328(7435):314-319.

For labor progressing too slowly, immersion in water may be effective alternative to obstetric intervention

Cluett E et al (2004) Randomised controlled trial of labouring in water compared with standard of augmentation for management of dystocia in first stage of labour.

Research results on use of water for women in slow labour

Randomised controlled trial of fecal occult blood screening for colorectal cancer.

New AGA guidelines are based on trials using SKD's Hemoccult II tests exclusively

Effectiveness of policy to provide breastfeeding groups (BIG) for pregnant and breastfeeding mothers in primary care: cluster randomised controlled trial.

Implementation key for breastfeeding guidance

Terblanche and colleagues investigated the use of adjunctive corticosteroid treatment of clinical PCP in infants in a randomised controlled trial.

Corticosteroids in Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia in infants

For example, there were consistent findings in multiple low quality trials or one high quality randomised controlled trial (some positive indications that therapeutic exercise may be effective).

Therapeutic exercise in physiotherapy practice is beneficial: a summary of systematic reviews 2002-2005