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4. Blinding: Outcome assessment
If not blinded consider the actual risk of bias on measuring
outcomes
• Pre-define assessment criteria
• Is the outcome subjective or objective?
• Still need to consider risk of bias even if not practical for the intervention
If blinding considered important
• Were outcome assessors definitely blind to allocation? If participants/personnel were not, then potential for unblinding
• Can be different for different outcomes
• some outcomes are blinded and some are not
• some outcomes are objective and some subjective
4. Blinding: Outcome assessment
LOW RISK
• Outcome assessor blind
• Not blind, but review authors do not judge blinding to be important (e.g. 12
week pregnancy scan)
UNCLEAR RISK
• No mention of blinding but easy methods possible
HIGH RISK
• Not blind, or no mention of blinding and blinding unlikely, and ability for outcome assessor to make different judgement (e.g. pain during procedure, quality of life)
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