方法对比

	多臂实验	整群随机对照试验
领域	实验设计	实验设计
方法族	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
起源年份	1990s–2000s (clinical formalization); multi-arm concept implicit in ANOVA-era factorial designs	1978–1980s
提出者	Developed within clinical trials methodology; formalized by Parmar, Royston and colleagues (UK MRC CTU, early 2000s)	Cornfield (1978); systematised by Donner and colleagues (1980s)
类型	Experimental design	Experimental design
开创性文献	Royston, P., Parmar, M. K. B., & Qian, W. (2003). Novel designs for multi-arm clinical trials with survival outcomes with an application in ovarian cancer. Statistics in Medicine, 22(14), 2239–2256.	Donner, A., & Klar, N. (2000). Design and Analysis of Cluster Randomization Trials in Health Research. Arnold. ISBN: 978-0340652978
别名	multi-arm trial, multiple-arm experiment, multi-group experiment, many-arm design	cluster RCT, group-randomized trial, community randomized trial, cluster-randomized experiment
相关	5	4
摘要	A multi-arm experiment simultaneously compares three or more treatment or intervention conditions — each called an arm — against a shared control or against one another. By testing multiple alternatives in a single study, it yields more information per participant than running separate two-group experiments sequentially, while controlling the overall Type I error rate through pre-specified comparison strategies.	A cluster randomized controlled trial (cluster RCT) is an experimental design in which intact social or organisational groups — such as schools, clinics, villages, or workplaces — are randomly assigned to treatment conditions rather than individual participants. Outcomes are still measured at the individual level, but the unit of randomization is the cluster. This design is essential when an intervention is delivered to whole groups, when there is a risk of contamination between participants in the same setting, or when individual randomization is logistically or ethically impractical.