HealthAugust 2, 2026
noninferiority
non-in-FEER-ee-OR-i-tee
Definition
A statistical standard in clinical trials used to demonstrate that a new treatment is not clinically worse than an established one by more than a pre-specified margin.
Etymology
The word is a combination of the prefix 'non-' meaning 'not' and the Latin-derived 'inferior', meaning 'lower in quality' or 'worse'.
In the news
In the article, noninferiority is used to define the benchmark for deescalation trials, where researchers aim to prove that reduced treatment is as effective as the current standard of care.
The Clinical Trial That Asks Whether Your Current Treatment Should Exist
Read the full article ↗The Clinical Trial Vanguard