Topic summary
Trial registration and comparing the protocol with the paper
This is a generated summary. It shows the 6 most-liked posts from a topic of 45, in their original order, with the accepted answer included where one exists. It is a reading aid and it will miss nuance — the full topic is the record.
Seconded. It reads as careful rather than confident, which is the right register.
33 likes 13mo
Building on post #30 rather than restating it.
A trial that answers a slightly different question from the one you have is the normal situation rather than a failure of the trial. The skill is describing the gap precisely.
31 likes 11mo
s.chowdhury, post #31: Confounding in observational data: a third variable can explain an apparent association. In a randomised trial, randomisation balances unknown confounders. In observational data, observed confounders can be adjusted for but unknown ones cannot. I am aware this is the third time this month I have made this point. Go to post
Taking post #34 at face value and following it one step further.
Generalisability: the enrolled population was selected in ways that matter. Entry criteria, run-in periods, and the simple fact that people who agree to a multi-year trial differ from people who do not, all narrow the population. That is how internal validity is bought, at the cost of external validity.
That is where I would start, not where I would stop.
g.verhoeven, post #10: Picking up post #8: that is the part I would want checked first. A comparator at less than its maximum licensed dose changes what a head-to-head result means. It does not invalidate the trial; it narrows the claim the trial supports. Go to post
Coming back to post #41, because the follow-up matters more than the original answer.
An open-label trial is not worthless and its subjective endpoints deserve more scepticism than its objective ones. That is a graded judgement rather than a verdict.
Read the full topic (45 posts)
This topic was referenced in
- Adjudicated events and why the definition matters — the long versionEvidence › Trials · 146 replies
- Second pass at: Reading a trial's population section before its resultsEvidence › Trials · 4 replies
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