Statistics and Evidence Flashcards
Why is decision making important in medicine? (3)
- doctors make decisions very often
- these decisions have effects in patients, their families and wider society
- understanding the medical decision making process and the role if evidence can improve medical practice
what is the hypothetico-deductive model of decision making?
coming up with a hypothesis, and trying to find evidence to prove/disprove
name 4 factors influencing an evidence based decision
- evidence from research
- clinical expertise
- available resources
- patient preferences
name 3 reasons why we need EBDM
- limited time to read
- inadequacy of traditional sources of infromation
- disparity between diagnostic skills/clinical judgement and up-to-date knowledge/clinical performance
Name 5 ways in which evidence based decision making is possible
- development of strategies for effectively identifying and appraising evidence
- creation of systematic reviews and summaries
- creating of evidence based journals and clinical guidelines
- creation of information systems
- identification and application of strategies for lifelong learning
What types of research question are the following study designs suitable for:
- cohort studies
- case controls
- RTCs
- qualitative approaches
- Diagnostic and screening studies
- Systematic reviews
- prognosis; cause
- cause
- treatment interventions. Benefits and harm
- patient perspective
- identification
- summary of evidence for a specific question
- what are background questions?
2. what are foreground questions?
- questions querying general knowledge of disorder (e.g who what where when)
- questions querying specific knowledge about managing patients with disorder (PICO)
What does PICO stand for?
P - population
I - intervention
C - comparator
O - outcome
What is a diagnostic test
any kind of medical test performed to aid the diagnosis or detection of disease
Define:
- Sensitivity
2. Specificity
- the ability of a test to correctly identify all those with disease
- the ability of a test to correctly exclude all those without disease
How do you calculate:
- Sensitivity
- Specificity
- no of true positives ÷ all those with disease
2. number of true negatives ÷ all those without disease
Define:
- Positive Predictive Value
2. Negative Predictive Value
- the chance of having disease with a positive test result
2. the chance of not having disease with a negative test result
How do you calculate:
- Positive predictive value
- negative predictive value
- number of true positive ÷ number who test positive
2. number of true negatives ÷ number who test negative
- Which aspects of test performance are affected by prevalence?
- How do they change as prevalence increases
- predictive values
2. PPV rises and NPV falls
What are likelihood ratios?
how the belief about the chance of disease has changed as a result of the test
What is screening?
the systematic application of a test, to identify individuals at sufficient risk of a specific disorder to warrant further investigation or direct preventative action, amongst people who have not sought medical attention on account of symptoms
What type of prevention is screening thought as?
secondary prevention
What are the criteria for the condition being screened for? (3)
- must be an important health problem
- epidemiology and natural history must be adequately understood
- Cost effective primary prevention must have been implemented