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Methodological Issues Relevant to Blinding in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Research
Thiru M Annaswamy1, Kegan Cunniff, John Ross Rizzo
1From the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Penn State Health Rehabilitation Hospital, Hummelstown, Pennsylvania (TMA); Spine Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas (KC); Department of Rehabilitation Medicine & Neurology, Grossman School of Medicine, and Departments of Mechanical & Aerospace and Biomedical Engineering, NYU Tandon School of Engineering, New York University, New York City, New York (JRR); Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, New York University, New York City, New York (TN); Department of Medicine, Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (DK); and Department of Physical Therapy, New York University Steinhardt, and Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Grossman School of Medicine, New York University Langone, New York City, New York (MB).
Abstract:
Blinding in research is important, and the field of physical medicine and rehabilitation poses special consideration owing to the patient populations and treatment methodologies used. Historically, blinding has been increasingly relevant to conducting good-quality research. The main reason to blind is to reduce bias. There are several strategies to blinding. At times, when blinding is not possible, alternatives to blinding include sham control and description of study and control groups. Illustrative examples of blinding used in physical medicine and rehabilitation research are described in this article, along with how to assess success and fidelity of blinding.
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