Blinding (masking)
The practice of keeping the trial participants, care providers, those collecting data, and sometimes even those analyzing data unaware of which intervention is being administered to which participant. Blinding is intended to prevent bias on the part of study personnel.
The most common application is "double-blinding", in which participants, caregivers and those assessing outcome are blinded to intervention assignment.
The term "masking" may be used instead of blinding.
Page last edited: 01 March 2007
