Corrections Flashcards
What test is used to compare proportions or percentages e.g. compares the percentage of patients who improved following two different interventions?
Chi-squared test
Prospective vs retrospective cohort study?
Prospective –> look at subjects before exposure to risk factors
Retrospective –> look back at individuals who have already been exposed to risk factors
Which clinical phase typically involves 100-1000’s of people, often as part of a RCT?
Phase 3
Clinical phase IIa vs IIb?
IIa - assess optimal dosing
IIb - assess efficacy
What is the Hawkthorne effect?
Describes a group changing it’s behaviour due to the knowledge that it is being studied
What test is used to assess correlation with parametric data?
Pearson’s coefficient
Parametric - Pearson’s
What test is used to assess correlation with non-parametric data?
Spearman’s coefficient
What is the likelihood ratio for a negative result?
Defined by how much the odds of the disease decrease when a test is negative.
Formula for the likelihood ratio for a negative result?
(1 - sensitivity) / specificity
What is the likelihood ratio for a positive test result?
How much the odds of the disease increase when a test is positive
Formula for the likelihood ratio for a positive test result?
Sensitivity / (1-specificity)
What is normal distribution?
A probability distribution that is symmetric about the mean, showing that data near the mean are more frequent in occurrence than data far from the mean.
What is the power of the study?
The probability of correctly rejecting the null hypothesis i.e. the chance of correctly identifying a statistically significant difference.
Power is increased by increasing the sample size.
Formula for power?
Power = 1 - the probability of making a type II error
Purpose of a significance test?
Uses the sample data to assess how likely the null hypothesis is to be correct.
What is a Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient and Kendall’s rank correlation coefficient used for?
Measures the strength and direction of the association between two variables.
Paired vs unpaired t test?
A paired t-test –> designed to compare the means of the same group or item under two separate scenarios.
An unpaired t-test –> compares the means of two independent or unrelated groups.
What is the chi-squared test used for?
Used to compare proportions or percentages e.g. compares the % of patients who improved following two DIFFERENT interventions.
What is a Wilcoxon signed rank test used for?
Compares 2 sets of observations on a single sample, e.g. a ‘before’ and ‘after’ test on the same population following an intervention.
Define selection bias
Term describing the non-random assignment of patients to a study group.
Selection bias refers to systematic differences in the baseline characteristics of the groups being compared.
How can selection bias be prevented?
Randomisation
What statistical test is used to compare proportions or percentages e.g. compares the percentage of patients who improved following two different interventions?
Chi-squared test
What is the relationship between standard deviation and variance?
Variance = square of standard deviation
SD = square root of variance
Define variance
A measure of the spread of the scores away from the mean
What is intention to treat analysis?
A method of analysis for randomised controlled trials in which ALL patients randomly assigned to one of the treatments are analysed together, regardless of whether or not they completed or received that treatment.
I.e. this analysis includes patients who have dropped out of the trial.
Purpose of intention to treat analysis?
This approach preserves the randomisation process and reflects real-world conditions, ensuring that the estimated treatment effect is not biased by non-compliance or attrition.