BSnoeijerCD
commented
5 days ago Based on the above, I explored existing publications on blinding vs masking. In many articles masking and blinding are used interchangeable with a preference for blinding. The following two publications made a clear distinction: Masking is better than blinding, Morris et. al. BMJ. 2007 Apr 14; 334(7597): 799.
- Blinding is inappropriate in the opthalmological setting. Patients do not understand it correctly so doctors should use other words. Therefore the word masking in itself is a better description of what we intend to do in a trial.
- Term masking is defined as “to cover or conceal, protect or disguise”
Encyclopedia of biostatistics: https://encyclopediaofbiostatistics.weebly.com/blindingmaskingconcealment.html
- Blinding in health and medicine is withholding information from those involved.
- The term blinding applies to the human beings involved in the project and masking to the regimens and the procedures
- Concealment of allocation is that the person allocating the treatments in a clinical trial does not know what treatment the next person is going to get.
The M11 template changed to ‘blinding’ and has the following comment on this: While blinding is the more commonly used term, masking is an alternative term which may be used in certain situations.