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Flow of participants in randomised studies

Burcu Cakir, Val J Gebski and Anthony C Keech
Med J Aust 2003; 178 (7): . || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2003.tb05232.x
Published online: 7 April 2003

In judging the results of randomised trials it is important to know from where and how participants were recruited, to what extent they received the intended interventions, whether they were followed up as planned, and whether their data were analysed as stated. These details are to ensure that readers of trial reports can appreciate both how closely participants reflect those more generally suffering from the condition under investigation, and how reliably the trial's results test its hypothesis.


  • NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre, University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW.


Correspondence: 

Competing interests:

None identified.

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