方法对比

	簇随机多臂试验	分块随机对照试验
领域	实验设计	实验设计
方法族	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
起源年份	1990s–2000s (systematic formalization)	1920s (Fisher's blocking principle); applied to RCTs from the 1940s onward
提出者	Building on cluster randomization (Donner & Klar) and multi-arm trial methods developed in clinical and public health research	R. A. Fisher (blocking principle); systematic RCT application by Bradford Hill and later Pocock, Friedman et al.
类型	Experimental design	Experimental design
开创性文献	Donner, A., & Klar, N. (2000). Design and Analysis of Cluster Randomization Trials in Health Research. Arnold. ISBN: 978-0340691533	Friedman, L. M., Furberg, C. D., DeMets, D. L., Reboussin, D. M., & Granger, C. B. (2010). Fundamentals of Clinical Trials (4th ed.). Springer. ISBN: 978-1441915856
别名	multi-arm cluster RCT, cluster-randomized multi-group trial, multi-arm group-randomized trial, CRCT multi-arm	blocked RCT, block-randomized trial, stratified block randomization trial, permuted block randomization
相关	6	5
摘要	A cluster randomized multi-arm experiment assigns intact groups — such as schools, clinics, or villages — rather than individuals to three or more experimental conditions simultaneously. Randomization occurs at the cluster level to prevent contamination between arms, while the multi-arm structure allows simultaneous evaluation of several interventions against a common control or each other, improving efficiency over a series of two-arm studies.	A blocked randomized controlled trial (blocked RCT) uses permuted-block randomization to ensure that treatment groups remain balanced in size — and optionally in key characteristics — throughout recruitment. Within each block of fixed or randomly varied size, all treatment allocations are present in equal numbers, so imbalance cannot accumulate even if the trial is stopped early. This makes blocked RCTs the standard randomization approach in clinical and behavioral intervention research.