Epidemiology Study Design 2

Question 1

Clinical trial

Answer 1

Research study in which treatment or management plan under test is administered to human subjects

Question 2

Errors made by chance

Answer 2

Type 1 error: incorrectly reject null hypothesis ie. believing treatment works when it doesn’t
Type 2 error: incorrectly accepting the null hypothesis ie. believing the treatment doesn’t work when it does

Question 3

How to guard against type 1 error

Answer 3

Only accept treatment is better if probability of incorrectly rejecting null hypothesis is low (<0.05)

Question 4

How to guard against type 2 error

Answer 4

Probability = β
Work out how large study must be to make β acceptably low
1-β

Question 5

When are controlled trials not appropriate?

Answer 5

Unethical ones which would imply intentional harm on the patients