Week 5 Discussion Forum

When conducting a study, patients occasionally “crossover” to other portions of the study. List one intervention that may impact the patient after this crossover, how it might affect the results of the study, and which (if any) precautions need to be considered when finding crossover data. Additionally, explain what a cohort study is and which types of disease are best to study using a cohort.

Week 5 Discussion Forum Answer

During randomized controlled trials where the researchers necessitate the use of randomization, unplanned crossovers occur that might affect the totality of the study, especially when these unplanned crossovers distort and disrupt the data and the study’s randomization. Fleming (2015) described unplanned crossovers as crossovers done by patients after categorizing them to a certain group; for example, a patient assigned to medical treatment group might reject this categorization and opt to “crossover” towards the surgical treatment group