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Testing for baseline balance in clinical trials
Author(s) -
Senn Stephen
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
statistics in medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.996
H-Index - 183
eISSN - 1097-0258
pISSN - 0277-6715
DOI - 10.1002/sim.4780131703
Subject(s) - covariate , baseline (sea) , homogeneity (statistics) , statistics , analysis of covariance , clinical trial , covariance , clinical practice , econometrics , medicine , mathematics , physical therapy , oceanography , geology
Abstract Once the data from a clinical trial are available for analysis it is common practice to carry out ‘tests of baseline homogeneity’ on prognostic covariates before proceeding to analyse the effects of treatment on outcome variables. It is argued that this practice is philosophically unsound, of no practical value and potentially misleading. Instead it is recommended that prognostic variables be identified in the trial‐plan and fitted in an analysis of covariance regardless of their baseline distribution (statistical significance).