Evidence Based Practice Week 4 – Clinical Interventions Study

A researcher is investigating the effectiveness of a new rehabilitation protocol by categorizing patients into groups based on their primary diagnosis: 'Spinal Cord Injury,' 'Traumatic Brain Injury,' and 'Stroke.' What type of data is being used for this categorization?

In a study evaluating patient satisfaction, participants are asked to rate their experience on a scale of 1 to 7, with 1 being 'extremely dissatisfied' and 7 being 'extremely satisfied.' This type of data is best described as:

Which of the following scenarios involves the use of continuous data?

A physical therapist records a patient's pain level before and after an intervention using a visual analog scale (VAS) ranging from 0 to 10, where 0 is 'no pain' and 10 is 'worst pain imaginable.' While the therapist treats this data as continuous for analysis, what is a potential limitation of treating VAS scores as truly continuous data?

A researcher wants to determine if there is a relationship between the type of treatment a patient receives (Treatment A vs. Treatment B) and whether they experience a specific side effect (Yes/No). Which statistical analysis would not be appropriate due to the data types involved?

A researcher finds a statistically significant difference between two groups using an ANOVA, with a p-value of 0.03. To understand the practical importance of this difference, which measure should they primarily consider?

In a clinical trial, a new drug reduces the risk of a certain complication from 10% to 5%. If the cost to treat 100 patients with the new drug is $5000, what additional information is needed to determine if the new drug is a cost-effective intervention?

A study reports a new treatment reduces the risk of heart attack by 30% compared to a placebo. Which additional piece of information is most crucial for interpreting the clinical significance of this finding?

In evaluating the effectiveness of a new educational program, researchers find a statistically significant improvement in test scores (p < 0.05) but a very small effect size (Cohen's d = 0.1). What is the most appropriate interpretation of these results?

A pharmaceutical company is testing a new drug to prevent strokes. In the control group, 8% of patients had a stroke, while in the treatment group, only 4% had a stroke. What is the Relative Risk Reduction (RRR)?

A public health campaign aims to reduce smoking rates. Before the campaign, 20% of the population smoked. After the campaign, the smoking rate dropped to 15%. What is the Absolute Risk Reduction (ARR)?

A hospital implements a new hand-washing protocol to reduce infection rates. Before the protocol, the infection rate was 10%. After implementation, it dropped to 2%. What is the Number Needed to Treat (NNT) to prevent one infection, assuming the protocol is the 'treatment'?

Consider a scenario where a new therapy reduces the risk of a disease from 8% to 6%. While the p-value is less than 0.05, an expert argues against its widespread adoption, saying it's not clinically significant. Which statistic would best support the expert's argument?

In hypothesis testing, what critical consideration differentiates a Type I error from a Type II error?

A researcher observes a dataset where the mean, median, and mode are substantially different. What can be inferred about the distribution of the data?

What is the primary distinction between interval and ratio data?

In the context of research, which measure of reliability assesses the consistency of measurements taken by different observers?

How does increasing the sample size generally affect the width of a confidence interval, assuming all other factors remain constant?

A researcher aims to study the effect of a new drug on blood pressure. To account for potential confounding variables, which statistical method should they employ?

Which of the following statistical tests is most appropriate for analyzing the association between two categorical variables?

What is the crucial role of 'intention-to-treat' analysis in clinical trials?

Assuming a normal distribution, approximately what percentage of data falls outside two standard deviations from the mean?

A confidence interval is calculated to be (2.5, 4.5) for the mean of a population. What is the correct interpretation of this interval?

What distinguishes ordinal data from nominal data?

In the context of statistical analysis, how can researchers mitigate the influence of confirmation bias?

How does a high standard deviation affect the interpretation of a dataset's distribution?

In the context of appraising research results, what is the significance of assessing whether the groups were similar at baseline?

What is the unique utility of the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) in reliability analysis?

In the context of research study appraisal, which of the following scenarios would MOST compromise the validity of inferential statistics used to compare two treatment groups?

A study reports high inter-rater reliability for a new goniometric measurement technique used by physical therapists. Which of the following interpretations of this finding is MOST accurate?

When is it MOST appropriate to report the median and mode, rather than the mean and standard deviation, as descriptive statistics for a dataset?

In a clinical trial comparing a new treatment to a standard treatment, the calculated Number Needed to Treat (NNT) is 25. What is the MOST accurate interpretation of this value?

A researcher is evaluating the reliability of a new pain assessment tool. They want to assess how consistently the same patient reports their pain level over a series of repeated measurements within a single session, assuming no actual change in their pain. Which type of reliability is MOST relevant to this assessment?

A researcher aims to minimize bias in a study comparing the effectiveness of two rehabilitation protocols. Which strategy is MOST effective in achieving this goal?

In the context of measurement scales, which characteristic uniquely distinguishes ratio data from interval data?

A newly developed diagnostic test for carpal tunnel syndrome demonstrates high sensitivity but low specificity. What are the implications of these characteristics in a clinical setting?

A physical therapist is reviewing a research article that reports an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.25 for the inter-rater reliability of a new functional assessment tool. How should the therapist interpret this value?

In assessing the applicability of a research study to a specific clinical setting, what factor should a clinician consider MOST critical?

A researcher measures a patient's range of motion 3 times in a single session. What aspect of reliability is the researcher measuring?

Which of the following study designs is MOST effective in minimizing the risk of selection bias?

A study reports a 95% confidence interval (CI) for the mean difference in pain scores between a new drug and a placebo group. The CI ranges from -0.5 to 1.2. What is the MOST appropriate conclusion?

Why is the Fahrenheit scale not considered a ratio scale?

In the context of data types, which type allows for ranking and ordering of data points, but the intervals between the points are not necessarily equal?

Nominal Data

Continuous Data

Ordinal Data

Scale/Continuous values

Meaningful Units

Effect Size

P-value

Number Needed to Treat (NNT)

Relative Risk Reduction (RRR)

Absolute Risk Reduction (ARR)

Type I Error

Normal Distribution

Skewed Distribution

Mean

Standard Deviation

Median

Range

Confidence Interval (CI)

Interval Data

Continuous (Ratio) Data

Reliability

Intra-individual Reliability

Intra-rater Reliability

Inter-rater Reliability

Discrete Data

Ratio Data

Accuracy

Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC)

Descriptive Statistics

Measures of Variability/Dispersion

Similarity at Baseline

Inferential Statistics