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Blinding Technique In Epidemiological Studies

Bias may arise from errors of assessment of the outcome due to human element. For example, if a patient knows about the research, he may deliberately conceal some important points which may affect the results of the study. In order to reduce this problem, a technique known as "blinding" is adopted, which will ensure that the outcome is assessed objectively.
1. Single Blind Trial
This trial is planned in such a way that the participants (patients or study population) are not aware whether they belong to study group or control group.

2. Double Blind Trial:
This trial is so planned that neither the doctor nor the participant is aware of the group allocation and the treatment received.

3. Triple Blind Trial:
This is one step further. The participant, the doctor and the person analysing the data are all blind. Ideally triple blinding should be used but the double blinding is the most commonly used method. In some cases blinding is not so important for example when an outcome such as death is being measured.

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