What is normal ? Flashcards
Describe the Equality Act of 2010
Protects people from discrimination, harassment and victimisation.
Under the equality act there are 9 protected characteristics.
State the 9 protected characteristics by the Equality Act
Age
Disability
Gender Reassignment
Marriage and Civil Partnership
Pregnancy and Maternity
Race
Religion or Belief
Sex
Sexual Orientation
What does stereotyping lead to ?
Can lead to discrimination, disadvantage, incorrect conclusions and danger
What is Bayesian thinking ?
Instead of thinking in certainties, you start thinking about chances and odds.
Define what is meant by “norm referencing”
Tests that compare the tester’s performance to the performance of peers in a norming group, usually of similar age or other demographic
Define what is meant by “reference intervals”
Gives the lower and upper extremities (x to y)
Define what is meant by “reference limit”
States the upper and lower extremes of the reference interval
Define what is meant by “reference range”
Refers to the difference between 2 values
Who developed reference intervals ?
Grasbeck and Saris (1969) to describe fluctuations of blood analyse concentrations in well-characterised groups of individuals.
Define what is meant by “clinical decision limits”
Clinical decision limits (CDLs) are derived from clinical populations. CDLs are thresholds above or below which a specific medical decision is recommended.
Give an example where the norm is based on falsehood
MMR
Give an example where one piece of data overrides others unfairly
Our friend said it/ does it/ had it/ looks like it, so it must be true
Describe reference man
20-30 years of age
Weighing 70kg
170cm in Height
“lives in a climate with average temp of 10-20 degrees”
Uses of reference man
Convenient
Allows comparison of results without tedious enumeration of assumptions.
Onwards from reference man
Reference man now 73kg (up from 70kg)
Reference woman now 60kg (up from 58kg)
Function of partitioning of reference intervals
Partitioning can be a valuable tool for enhancing the diagnostic power of reference intervals.
“Normal parameters”
Gaussian distribution
95% of individuals fall within +/- 2SD of the mean of each curve.
Discuss where use of “normal” parameters would be appropriate to use
e.g. 2 parameters in the same population
Discuss where use of “normal” parameters would be inappropriate to use
e.g. patents with a disease and patients without a disease
What data is used to find norms ?
Parameters derived from a study of a “large” set of individuals
Assimilation of information, to find or create our own “norm” reference.
Compare the ‘measured value’ and act accordingly
Describe clinical decision limits
Values above or below a threshold that are associated with a significantly higher risk of adverse clinical outcomes or are diagnostic for the presence of a specific disease.
What are clinical decision limit values based on ?
Values are usually based on clinical outcome studies
