Performance bias is the knowledge of research participants and research staff of the interventions that participants were allocated to [ 38].
However, although these methods claim to predict function at the fourth level of the Enzyme Classification number, a situation that remains to be experimentally validated, incorrect annotation in current databases, incorrect training of the method, domain fusions, and bias in the knowledge of functional residues, among other factors, are likely to hamper their efficiency.
Fourteen studies (34%) had a low risk of bias due to the knowledge of allocated intervention, as these studies either measured objective outcomes (such as alcohol consumption or output from electronic counting devices) or stated that the observers were blinded to the intervention.
Nevertheless, total deaths, the main outcome of the study, could not be biased by knowledge of the exposure.
The main focus of the workflow is the selection of complete libraries for unbiased screening, namely screening which is not biased by knowledge of the structure of the biological target or of compounds known to interact with it.
Physical activity is notoriously difficult to measure and the self reported assessment could have been biased by knowledge of the treatment allocation.
One strength of this study is that data regarding predictors were collected at admission, before the discharge outcome was known guaranteeing that the measurement of predictor variables was not biased by knowledge of the subjects' outcomes.
The less information that is accessible, the less chance there is of recruitment being biased by knowledge of the likely allocation of future patients.
When measured retrospectively patients probably take into account their evaluation of the decision-making when expressing their preference after the decision-making took place, while prospectively measured preferences are not biased by knowledge of the actual decision-making process.
Defining asthma on the basis of objective findings in extensive lung function measurements performed in accordance with the national guidelines (National Asthma Program in Finland 1994) reduces information bias concerning the outcome; the knowledge of exposures of the patient did not affect the diagnosis of asthma.
