A Comparison of Observational Studies and Randomized, Controlled Trials

Observational studies have several advantages over randomized, controlled trials, including lower cost, greater timeliness, and a broader range of patients. 1 Concern about inherent bias in these studies, however, has limited their use in comparing treatments. 2 , 3 Observational studies are used pr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe New England journal of medicine Vol. 342; no. 25; pp. 1878 - 1886
Main Authors Benson, Kjell, Hartz, Arthur J
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Boston, MA Massachusetts Medical Society 22.06.2000
Subjects
Bias
Biological and medical sciences
Bone Density - drug effects
Clinical trials
Cohort Studies
Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Heart Diseases - therapy
Hormone Replacement Therapy
Humans
Medical sciences
Miscellaneous
Odds Ratio
Pharmacology. Drug treatments
Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
Research Design
Retrospective Studies
Statistical methods
Studies
Therapeutics
Treatment Outcome
Human
Drug
Evaluation
Chemotherapy
Randomization
Scientific research
Observational condition
Controlled therapeutic trial
Comparative study
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Summary:Observational studies have several advantages over randomized, controlled trials, including lower cost, greater timeliness, and a broader range of patients. 1 Concern about inherent bias in these studies, however, has limited their use in comparing treatments. 2 , 3 Observational studies are used primarily to identify risk factors and prognostic indicators and in situations in which randomized, controlled trials would be impossible or unethical. 4 The empirical assessment of observational studies rests largely on a number of influential comparative studies from the 1970s and 1980s. 5 – 9 These studies suggested that observational studies inflate positive treatment effects, as compared with randomized, controlled trials. In one . . .
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
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ISSN:0028-4793
1533-4406
DOI:10.1056/NEJM200006223422506