Articles: outcome-assessment-health-care.
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Paediatr Perinat Epidemiol · Apr 1998
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialA comparison of two methods of follow-up in a trial of prophylactic volume expansion in preterm babies.
The outcome at age 2 years of preterm babies recruited into a three-arm randomised controlled trial of prophylactic volume expansion was ascertained in two ways: from a neurodevelopmental assessment performed by a paediatrician and from responses on a brief questionnaire completed by the child's personal health visitor. Of 776 babies recruited into the trial, 604 survived to the age of 2 years and the findings of a paediatric assessment were available for all survivors. Questionnaires were sent to the health visitors of 601 of the survivors; 513 (85.4%) were returned. ⋯ The end point of the trial was death or severe disability at 2 years of age. There was close similarity in the trial results whether based on the paediatric assessment or on the questionnaire. Further refinement of the questionnaire is needed, but this methodology may be useful in ascertaining the frequency of severe disability in large cohorts of babies.
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Control Clin Trials · Feb 1997
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialOutcome assessment for clinical trials: how many adjudicators do we need? Canadian Lung Oncology Group.
Considerable effort is often expended to adjudicate outcomes in clinical trials, but little has been written on the administration of the adjudication process and its possible impact on study results. As a case study, we describe the function and performance of an adjudication committee in a large randomized trial of two diagnostic approaches to potentially operable lung cancer. Up to five independent adjudicators independently determined two primary outcomes: tumor status at death or at final follow-up and the cause of death. ⋯ This level of effort could be substantially reduced by using fewer adjudicators with little impact on the results. Thus, we suggest that when high observer agreement is demonstrated or anticipated, adjudication committees should consist of no more than three members. Further work is needed to evaluate if smaller committees are adequate to detect small but important treatment effects or if they compromise validity when the level of adjudicator agreement is lower.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Comparison of out of hours care provided by patients' own general practitioners and commercial deputising services: a randomised controlled trial. II: The outcome of care.
To compare the outcome of out of hours care given by general practitioners from patients' own practices and by commercial deputising services. ⋯ Patients are more satisfied with the out of hours care provided by practice doctors than that provided by deputising doctors. Organisation of doctors into large groups may produce lower levels of patient satisfaction, especially when associated with increased delays in the time taken to visit. There seem to be no appreciable differences in health outcome between the two types of service.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
High-frequency jet ventilation in the early management of respiratory distress syndrome is associated with a greater risk for adverse outcomes.
The objective of this investigation was to determine if high-frequency jet ventilation (HFJV) used early in the treatment of premature infants with respiratory distress syndrome was effective in reducing pulmonary morbidity without increasing the occurrence of adverse neurologic outcomes. ⋯ With the HFJV treatment strategy that we used, use of the high-frequency jet ventilator in the early management of premature infants with respiratory distress syndrome resulted in significantly more adverse outcomes than in those treated with conventional mechanical ventilation.