Intermediate
Technical
IVT
blinding integrity
The maintenance of masked treatment allocation throughout a clinical trial to prevent bias.
Full Definition
Blinding integrity refers to the successful preservation of treatment masking in clinical trials, ensuring that neither participants nor investigators can determine which treatment is being administered. Compromised blinding integrity can introduce bias and threaten the validity of study results. Assessment often involves questionnaires asking participants and staff to guess treatment assignment, with successful blinding indicated when guesses are no better than chance.
Usage
Usage note: Often assessed through post-study questionnaires asking participants to guess their treatment assignment.
In Context
- "The study protocol included measures to assess blinding integrity at the end of each treatment phase." — Clinical trial protocol
- "Compromised blinding integrity in the antidepressant trial may have influenced the primary outcome results." — Research manuscript
Also known as
masking integrity
treatment concealment
Contrasted with
unblinding
treatment revelation
Don't confuse with
allocation concealment