Selection of patients for randomized controlled trials: Implications of wide or narrow eligibility criteria

作者：Salim Yusuf, Peter Held, Koon Kang Teo, Elizabeth Rudin Toretsky · 发表于：Statistics in Medicine · 年份：1990 · DOI：10.1002/sim.4780090114 · 被引用次数：122 · 研究领域：Health Systems, Economic Evaluations, Quality of Life、Meta-analysis and systematic reviews

This paper discusses the various philosophies that influence the selection of patients for entry into randomized controlled trials. Although a number of different and often competing issues have to be considered depending upon the trial, keeping entry criteria simple, wide and at times even flexible is usually preferable. Such a strategy can be a positive virtue by helping to attain the large numbers of patients that are usually needed to reliably detect the sorts of moderate benefits that are plausible, at a reasonable cost and by providing answers that are relevant to many different categories of patients with a particular condition.