What is baseline characteristics in clinical trials?
Baseline characteristics or data are demographic, medical and other information, particularly prognostic variables. Researchers collect this information about each participant at the beginning of a study, before they have received the treatments that are going to be compared in a treatment comparison.
Why is it important to demonstrate similarities in the baseline characteristics and pre test measures in the experimental and control groups?
Having baseline data in clinical trials is important since the control and experimental groups may not statistically be different but they can be different from an external group. Baseline is a significant predictor.
What is a Baseline Characteristics Table?
Generally, a table with baseline characteristics is provided, where investigators report demographic and pertinent clinical variables based on the random group assignment and P values for the each variable in attempt to either support the balanced assignment or to indicate that the balance between groups was not ideal.
Why is it important to have similarities between baseline groups?
If randomisation is successful and the groups are similar at baseline, the investigator can be more confident that observed differences in outcomes between the groups are related to the intervention rather than confounding factors.
What is a baseline in an experiment?
In psychological research a baseline is a measurement of the variable of interest at the beginning of treatment or a study that is used to compare to later measurements in order to judge the effectiveness of the treatment or conditions.
What is baseline bias?
However, imbalance between groups in baseline variables that may influence outcome (such as age or disease severity) can bias statistical tests, a property sometimes referred to as chance bias. A common practice is to check for imbalance between intervention groups by statistical tests of baseline characteristics.