השוואת שיטות

	ניסוי קליני אקראי (RCT)	מחקר עוקבה
תחום	אפידמיולוגיה	אפידמיולוגיה
משפחה	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
שנת המקור	1948 (first rigorously conducted RCT — MRC streptomycin trial)	Mid-20th century (formal epidemiological design codified ~1950s)
הוגה השיטה	Austin Bradford Hill; MRC Streptomycin Trial team	Doll & Hill (British Doctors Study, 1951); Snow (cholera, 1854)
סוג	Interventional experimental study	Observational longitudinal study design
מקור מכונן	Friedman, L. M., Furberg, C. D., DeMets, D. L., Reboussin, D. M., & Granger, C. B. (2015). Fundamentals of Clinical Trials (5th ed.). Springer. ISBN: 978-3319185385	Rothman, K. J., Greenland, S., & Lash, T. L. (2008). Modern Epidemiology (3rd ed.). Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. ISBN: 978-0781755641
כינויים	RCT, randomized controlled trial, randomised controlled trial, clinical randomized trial	longitudinal study, follow-up study, panel study, incidence study
קשורות	6	6
תקציר	A randomized clinical trial (RCT) is an experimental study design in which participants are randomly assigned to an intervention group or a control group, then followed prospectively to compare outcomes. Random allocation is the defining feature: it distributes known and unknown confounders across groups by chance, making the RCT the strongest individual study design for establishing causal efficacy of a treatment or intervention under controlled conditions.	A cohort study assembles a group of individuals who share a common starting point — typically freedom from the outcome of interest — and follows them over time to observe who develops the outcome. By comparing incidence rates between exposed and unexposed subgroups, researchers can estimate relative risk and absolute risk differences. Cohort studies are the gold-standard observational design for measuring disease incidence and establishing temporal relationships between exposure and outcome.