Statistics Flashcards
NNT
1/ARR
ARR = absolute reduction risk ARR = CER (Control Event Rate) – EER (Experimental Event Rate)
i.e
mortality without intervention =30%
mortality with intervention = 25%
30%-25% = 5% = 0.05 1/0.05 = 20
Note: if the ARR changes so will the NNT
Case control studies
- Case control studies are the most widely conducted type of epidemiologic study because they are relatively cheap, powerful, and adaptable to many settings.
- persons with infection or disease are compared with controls
- Restrospective in nature
- Such comparison allows for the study of associations between exposure and disease even when the disease is a rare outcome of the exposure
Benefits of case control studies
Benefits:
- Efficient in terms of time and cost
- Efficient in design for study of RARE diseases
- Requires FEWER SUBJECTs than other studies
- Best design for diseases with LONG LATENCY periods
- Can evaluate multiple possible/potential EXPOSURES
- Calculates indirect estimate of risk:odds ratio
Disadvantages:
- Both exposure and disease occurred ‘prior to’ the study (retrospective), hence more POTENTIAL FOR BIAS, and the temporal relationships may be unclear
- Can not directly calculate incidence
- Recall or interviewer bias can be problematic; can over or underestimate odds ratio
- Confounding factors
- Selection of controls from population sub-group can be difficult
calculating likelihood ratio
Assesses the value of performing a diagnostic tes
-uses sensitivity and specificity
LR of a positive test is probability of TRUE POSITIVES (given disease) to FALSE POSITIVES (w/o disease)
–>positive LR = sensitivity/(1-specificity)
LR of a negative test is the probability of a FALSE NEGATIVE (with disease) to a TRUE NEGATIVE (w/o disease
negative LR = (1-sensitivity)/specificity
Pre-test probability
The probability of a condition before a test
–> The PREVALENCE of the disease, which may have to be chosen if no other characteristic is known for the individua
Post-test probability
The probability of a condition AFTER a test
Uses Bayes’ normogram with pre-test probability and LR
-multiple the pre-test probability with the LR
Positive predictive value
If the test is POSITIVE what is the chance of the patient having the disease
Need to take into account the PREVALANCE
PPV= True positives / (True positives + False positives)
Negative predictive values
If the test is NEGATIVE what is the chance of the patient NOT having the disease
Need to take into account the PREVALENCE
TPV = True negative/ (True negatives + False negatives)
Sensitivity
Indicator of how good a test is for the condition of interest
- True positive rate
- If the sensitivity is HIGH this means a NEGATIVE result is useful for ruling OUT a disease
Sensitivity = True positives/ (True positives + false negatives)
Specificity
Indicator of how good a test is for the condition of interest
- True negative rate
- If the Specificity is HIGH this means a POSITIVE result is useful for ruling IN a disease
Specificity = True negatives / (true negatives + false positives)
Prevalence and PPV
Prevalence = pre-test probability
The prevalence and PPV are directly related
The lower the prevalence the LOWER the PPV (The LESS sure a positive means the person has the disease) BUT the HIGHER the NPV
Null hypothesis
= no effect
Type I error
we reject the null hypothesis when it is TRUE and conclude there is an effect when there is in fact none
This is the SIGNIFICANCE level of the test; we reject the null hypothesis if the p value is less than the signifcance value
p value < alpha
alpha is the significance value chosen before the trial which is usually 0.05 or <0.01
Our CHANCE of type 1 error will never exceed our chosen significance level say alpha = 0.05 because if p >0.05 we will not reject the null hypothesis and therefore not make a type 1 error
Type II error
we do not reject the null hypothesis when it is FALSE and conclude there is not an effect when ONE really EXISTS
The chance of making a type II error is based on beta
and POWER which is 1- beta
The power is therefore the probability of rejecting the null hypothesis when it is false (a percentage) –> it is the chance of detecting, as statistically significant, a real treatment effect of a given size
- the greater the sample size, the greater the power = the small the chance of making a type II error
Cohort study
A group or groups of individuals are defined on the basis of presence or absence of exposure to a suspected risk factor for a disease, and are then followed for a specified period of time to determine the development of disease in each exposure group
- at the time the exposure status is defined all the potential subjects must be free from the disease under investigation.
- eligible participants are then followed over a period of time to assess the occurrence of that of that outcome.
- the cohort is identified before the appearance of the disease under investigation.
The study groups, so defined, are observed over a period of time to determine the frequency of new incidence of the studied disease among them. The cohort cannot therefore be defined as a group of people who already have the disease. Distinguishing causality from mere correlation cannot usually be done with results of a cohort study alone
Disadvantage of this study is that it is not useful in identifying causative agents when the disease process is rare