Welcome to MDMLG

Evaluating information:

particpant allocation - one of 7 types of blinding, one of two absolute types of blinding.

Why is allocation concealment important?

Could change the outcome of the results.

Mamography screening
Lancet Jan 8, 2000; Oct 20, 2001

"Mundus Vult Decipi"
"The world wished to be deceived"
People would rather be deceived than have the truth cause anxiety

Caleb Carr, "Killing Time"

Second absolute type of blinding - judicial assessor blind.

Also look for intention to treat

Levels of Evidence:

SR with homogeneity = 1a
RCT: LOE = 1b
Cohort: LOE = 2b
Case Control: LOE = 3b
Case Series: LOE = 4
Expert Opinion: LOE = 5

Statistics you need to understand to evaluate research:

Probability Level (P-Value) - likelihood that the deifference observed between two interventions could have arisen by chance.

Number Needed to Treat - 1) the number of patients that need to be treated for one additional patient to receive benefit, 2) the number of paitents that need to be treated to prevent one additional outcome, 3) takes into account the relative risk as well as the absulte risk of not treatment.

NNT = 100 / % in treatment group - % in control group

Relative risk - risk of harm (or benefit) of one treatment as compared with another. Does not take into account the risk of NO treatment (absolute risk).

relative risk tells part, but not all of the story; NNT does better

confidence interval - upper and lower possibilities of our statistical estimates. If CI crosses 1.0, the difference is not significant.

Statistical signiificance is a requirement for determining clinical significance, but is not enough to signify a clinical difference.

Confidence Intervals helop us to understand how close our answer is to the truth.

What to look for in validity:
randomization
allocation concealment
blinded judicial assessors
intention to treat
follow-up > 80%
Narrow confidence intervals

Time for lunch...

Labels: MHSLA