Population Science Flashcards
is the 95% confidence interval includes the number 1 what does this mean about the results?
they are not statistically significant. The null hypotheses is rejected.
what is blinding
where the patient is not aware of which treatment they are being given
what are the advantages of blinding
minimises allocation bias, behaviour changes of the patient, measurement bias
what is measurement bias
how assessors may later the way they collect information
what are appropriate losses to follow up
where the patient has to be removed from the trial due to a deterioration in their health
what are unfortunate losses to follow up
where a patient chooses to withdraw from the trial
why may patients not be compliant with their treatment
didn’t understand instructions
feel better already
don’t like the treatment
how can you improve patient compliance
explain instructions fully
directly observed treatment
what is As-Treated analysis
where you only analyse the results from those how fully complied with treatment and discard follow up losses
what is Intention-to-treat analysis
where the analysis of the trial is done according to original allocation regardless of follow up losses and compliance
True or False: As-treated analysis gives a more realistic size of the effect of the treatment
false - its intention-to-treat analysis
why are RCTs used
they remove confounding and allocation bias
whilst also allowing for reproducible, controlled and fair trials
what are RCTs
where 2 identical groups are produced to make a fair comparison when looking at 2 different treatment options
what is a primary outcome measure
the main and preferably only outcome
what is a secondary outcome measure
other outcomes of interest
