The merits of the RCT (RES 500 Case)
Health science researchers have long believed the randomized controlled trial (RCT) to be the “gold standard” of study designs. There are many reasons for their contention that an RCT should be preferred to any of the observational study designs. However, there are also instances in which employment of this design would be inappropriate. In a four-page paper, discuss the merits of the RCT as a study design with regard to: Internal validity Confounding Feasibility/appropriateness External validity You are expected to consult the scholarly literature in preparing your paper; you are also expected to incorporate relevant background readings. Your paper should be written in your own words. This will enable me to assess your levedisl of understanding. In order to earn full credit, you must clearly show that you have read ALL required background materials. Be sure to cite your references in the text of all papers and on the reference list at the end. For examples, look at the way the references are listed in the modules and on the background reading list. Proofread your paper to be sure grammar and punctuation are correct and that each part of the assignment has been address clearly and completely. Length: 4 pages typed, double-spaced.
RES 500 Case
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It is a fact that certain research methods are more significant than others based on the capability to address respond to questions on the efficiency of interventions. It has led to the ranking of evidence, which evaluate outcome of interventions and shows, which research designs need to be given the most priority. According to Bowling and Ebrahim (2005), the Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) is regarded to offer the most reliable evidence on the efficiency of interventions since the processes adopted during the performance of an RCT reduces the challenges associated with confounding factors that influence the outcomes. Due to this, the findings established by RCT are much closer to the appropriate impact than the findings developed by other research techniques. Health science researchers prefer using RCT because it provides the most powerful evidence on the efficiency of treatments or interventions.
For example, a school district intended accurately to analyze whether the new development curriculum for the teaching profession is more efficient than the existing district curriculum. The district may conduct an RCT that randomly designates teachers either to a control group that utilizes the existing curriculum or an intervention group that gets the new curriculum. The RCT would evaluate the outcomes like test results of their students or content knowledge of the teachers for both the two groups after a period of time. The different results between the two groups would signify the impact of the new curriculum in relation to the existing curriculum.
An RCT refers to any form of study that participants are randomly delegated to one of two or several clinical treatments or interventions. RCT is regarded as the most scientifically accurate approach used for testing hypotheses. It is considered as gold standard trial used for evaluating the efficiency of treatments or interventions. The role of random assignment is to eliminate selection bias, and this is achieved by distributing the features of the participants or patients, which may influence the results randomly between the groups in order for any difference in the results, can be justified by the intervention (Berlin, Ziv, Jackson and Greenberg, 2005). Therefore, random allocation creates a balance of systematic differences among intervention groups in reference to the identified and unidentified factors such as duration of sickness, illness activity, sex and age, which may affect the outcomes.
In RCT, participants are designated randomly to study groups (treatment conditions). The participants have equal probability of being designated to any group. Bowling and Ebrahim (2005) opine that procedures remain controlled to make certain that all participants in every study group are treated equally except unique factors of the group. The main objective of performing an RCT aims to test whether a treatment or an intervention functions by comparing it to a controlled condition. The merits of making use of RCT design are many. Random assignment makes certain that unidentified and identified participants and environment features, which could affect the result of interest, are equally distributed in all the conditions. By adopting a random assignment and control group, the RCT model reduces risks and bias in internal validity by making the conditions equal across all other influences apart from the intervention.
The advantage of RCT is that it is internally valid, and this implies that its conduct and design reduce any likelihood of bias. When RCT is used appropriately, it produces internal validity (true results) and minimizes ca...