Screening data: are patients in the trial representative?

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  •  What does it mean?
Screening data is information collected before participants are recruited into a study. The information collected can help assess how representative patients in the trial are of the target population since we can compare those patients in the trial to those that declined to take part. 

  • An example
In the toothpaste trial, dentists recruit patients to the trial. Before patients are recruited they are asked about their age and gender, but some eligible patients decide they are not interested in being involved further. If they accept, their age and gender can still be used to compared with the age and gender of patients that accepted to take part.

  • How can patients be involved?
At the design and protocol stage of a trial, patients can be involved in deciding what is important and acceptable to measure at the screening stage. During the trial, patients can help decide how to summarise this information and present it to the trial team or in reports.

Comments

  1. Unknown11 March 2022 at 07:53

    They can also be involved in discussions on how to recruit participants to get a representative sample. In the toothpaste example, where the dentists are located will define some participant characteristics.

    Not sure I understand the example. Is there a typo in the last example.

    ReplyDelete

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