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Randomized Controlled Trials in the study of Furze et al

Randomized Controlled Trials in the study of Furze et al.

Introduction

The diagnosis of angina has a significant impact on quality of life, which progressively deteriorates in proportion to the severity of symptoms, secondary prevention; control of risk factors, adjustments of lifestyles and functional investigations non-invasive, near the optimal treatment of angina, myocardial revascularization and most other invasive treatments, along with treatment of refractory angina, the confrontation has changed with it (Lewin et al. 2002, pp. 194-201). The randomized controlled trial is the gold standard for assessing the impact of a health intervention. It assesses the impact of this intervention, using a direct comparison with a group that does not receive the intervention or who receives another intervention (Sibbald and Roland, 1998, pp. 316-201). This paper will evaluate the use of randomized controlled trial in the study Randomized controlled trial of a lay-facilitated angina management programme of Furze et al. (2012).

Discussion

The research article of Furze et al. clearly asks the question which intends to study i.e. The researchers want examine and test whether lay facilitators effectively provide care to the stable angina patients or not than the usual advice from nurses and practitioners. The study was based on RCT and it was appropriately used by the researcher. In a clinical trial for a disease, most often researchers try to show that a new treatment has a higher efficiency than the commonly used treatment in this disease, or no treatment (especially when there is no further treatment for the disease under study use) (Bryman, 2008, pp. 44-68) which has been done in this study in which Lay-facilitated, Angina Management Programme LAMP was introduced to the participants against the routine education and advice from the nurses (Furze et al. 2012, pp. 2267-2279). Because treatment assignment is controlled and decided by lot, it will be appropriate to conclude that a difference in efficiency is caused by the treatment (at the risk of selected statistical error).

Structure of Randomized Control Trial

In a randomized, controlled study design (for example, two-arm parallel group design) the effects of therapy (intervention) and a control treatment are compared and assigned to the patient by one of the two randomization groups (Bryman, 2008, pp. 44-68). The patients in the control group treated either with another therapy or placebo. The LAMP study is a two-arm, parallel group study, examined in was whether the combination therapy or monotherapy versus placebo improves the condition of the participants (Furze et al. 2012, pp. 2267-2279).

Random Sampling

To schedule randomization in a clinical trial where several factors including stratification are necessary, block randomization is unclear as to the balance of strata and also poses a logistical problem. A recent method of Randomization by minimization with hierarchical stratification reduces this imbalance. It then requires the establishment of a hierarchy and stratification factors the maximum permissible imbalance at each level of stratification. Also, the allocation of processing is performed by a weighted lottery, with a higher weight ...