Influence of blinding on treatment effect size estimate in randomized controlled trials of oral health interventions.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Recent methodologic evidence suggests that lack of blinding in randomized trials can result in under- or overestimation of the treatment effect size. The objective of this study is to quantify the extent of bias associated with blinding in randomized controlled trials of oral health interventions.

Methods

We selected all oral health meta-analyses that included a minimum of five randomized controlled trials. We extracted data, in duplicate, related to nine blinding-related criteria, namely: patient blinding, assessor blinding, care-provider blinding, investigator blinding, statistician blinding, blinding of both patients and assessors, study described as "double blind", blinding of patients, assessors, and care providers concurrently, and the appropriateness of bli

SUBMITTER: Saltaji H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5960173 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature