What is normal ?

Question 1

Describe the Equality Act of 2010

Answer 1

Protects people from discrimination, harassment and victimisation.

Under the equality act there are 9 protected characteristics.

Question 2

State the 9 protected characteristics by the Equality Act

Answer 2

Age
Disability
Gender Reassignment
Marriage and Civil Partnership
Pregnancy and Maternity
Race
Religion or Belief
Sex
Sexual Orientation

Question 3

What does stereotyping lead to ?

Answer 3

Can lead to discrimination, disadvantage, incorrect conclusions and danger

Question 4

What is Bayesian thinking ?

Answer 4

Instead of thinking in certainties, you start thinking about chances and odds.

Question 5

Define what is meant by “norm referencing”

Answer 5

Tests that compare the tester’s performance to the performance of peers in a norming group, usually of similar age or other demographic

Question 6

Define what is meant by “reference intervals”

Answer 6

Gives the lower and upper extremities (x to y)

Question 7

Define what is meant by “reference limit”

Answer 7

States the upper and lower extremes of the reference interval

Question 8

Define what is meant by “reference range”

Answer 8

Refers to the difference between 2 values

Question 9

Who developed reference intervals ?

Answer 9

Grasbeck and Saris (1969) to describe fluctuations of blood analyse concentrations in well-characterised groups of individuals.

Question 10

Define what is meant by “clinical decision limits”

Answer 10

Clinical decision limits (CDLs) are derived from clinical populations. CDLs are thresholds above or below which a specific medical decision is recommended.

Question 11

Give an example where the norm is based on falsehood

Answer 11

MMR

Question 12

Give an example where one piece of data overrides others unfairly

Answer 12

Our friend said it/ does it/ had it/ looks like it, so it must be true

Question 13

Describe reference man

Answer 13

20-30 years of age
Weighing 70kg
170cm in Height

“lives in a climate with average temp of 10-20 degrees”

Question 14

Uses of reference man

Answer 14

Convenient

Allows comparison of results without tedious enumeration of assumptions.

Question 15

Onwards from reference man

Answer 15

Reference man now 73kg (up from 70kg)
Reference woman now 60kg (up from 58kg)

Question 16

Function of partitioning of reference intervals

Answer 16

Partitioning can be a valuable tool for enhancing the diagnostic power of reference intervals.

Question 17

“Normal parameters”

Answer 17

Gaussian distribution
95% of individuals fall within +/- 2SD of the mean of each curve.

Question 18

Discuss where use of “normal” parameters would be appropriate to use

Answer 18

e.g. 2 parameters in the same population

Question 19

Discuss where use of “normal” parameters would be inappropriate to use

Answer 19

e.g. patents with a disease and patients without a disease

Question 20

What data is used to find norms ?

Answer 20

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

Question 21

Describe clinical decision limits

Answer 21

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.

Question 22

What are clinical decision limit values based on ?

Answer 22

Values are usually based on clinical outcome studies