Analyzing participant outcomes according to the group to which they were randomized, even if participants in that group did not receive the planned...
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Analyzing participant outcomes according to the group to which they were randomized, even if participants in that group did not receive the planned intervention. This principle preserves the power of randomization, thus ensuring that important known and unknown factors that influence outcomes are likely to be equally distributed across comparison groups. We do not use the term intention-to-treat analysis because of ambiguity created by patients lost to follow-up, which can cause exactly the same sort of bias as failure to adhere to the intention-to-treat principle.