EBM

Question 1

The medical history of a single patient described anecdotally is known as…

Answer 1

Case report

Question 2

‘Describes the histories of several patients with a similar problem or outcome of interest’

Answer 2

Case series

Question 3

‘A study that uses population data instead of individual records’

Answer 3

Ecological study

Question 4

‘The analysis of population data from a specific point in time’

Answer 4

Cross-sectional survey

Question 5

‘People with a particular outcome are identifed and matched with controls. Retrospective analysis to identify possible causative agents’

Answer 5

Case-control study

Question 6

‘People selected due to their exposure to a particular agent of interest. Followed up over time to track disease progress’

Answer 6

Cohort study

Question 7

‘Each patient is randomly allocated to a group. The investigator controls the exposure of a factor of interest, and the patients followed up over time’

Answer 7

Randomised controlled trial

Question 8

‘Compares the different responses to different treatments of individual patients for the same disease’

Answer 8

Crossover trial

Question 9

‘Review that answers a specific pre-set question using data analysis of all related primary literature’

Answer 9

Systematic review

Question 10

‘Statistical analysis that combines the results of multiple studies. Statistically similar studies are analysed as if they were one study”

Answer 10

Meta-analysis

Question 11

What is the name given to the statistical value produced from a meta analysis? How is this shown?

Answer 11

Pooled treatment result

Forrest plot

Question 12

Define validity. What are the two types of validity?

Answer 12

The extent to which a variable measures what its supposed to

Internal (experiemental design) and external (results application to wider population)

Question 13

Define reliability…

Answer 13

The degree of stability when an experiment is repeated under the same conditions

Question 14

A tendancy to influence trial results other than experiemental intervention is known as…

Answer 14

Bias

Question 15

What is information bias?

Answer 15

Errors in measuring responses

Question 16

What is selection/exclusion bias?

Answer 16

Based on trial recruitment

Question 17

Observer bias is…

Answer 17

Bias if a trial co-ordinator is aware of the treatment (mitigated by blinding)

Question 18

Interviewer bias is….

Answer 18

Weighted gathering of information

Question 19

What is recall bias?

Answer 19

Inaccurate recollection of past events

Question 20

Referer filter bias is…

Answer 20

When the only patients referred from primary care for trials are those with severe of atypical presentations

Question 21

Confirmation bias is…

Answer 21

Tendency to search for information that reinforces preordained beliefs

Question 22

What are confounding variables?

Answer 22

A variable that has an effect on the outcome yet is not the variable that researchers are interested in or aware of

Question 23

What is sample variation?

Answer 23

The chance that different samples could provide different results within the same population

Question 24

What is the true mean?

Answer 24

Average result if an entire population could be sampled

Question 25

What is a confidence interval?

Answer 25

How close the sample is to the true mean of the population

An indicator of reliability