Evidence-based Medicine Toolkit

Evidence-based medicine:glossary of termshttp://www.cebm.netAbsolute risk reduction (ARR): the difference in the event rate betweencontrol group (CER) and treated group (EER): ARR = CER – EER. See p.55.Adjustment: a summarizing procedure for a statistical measure in whichthe effects of differences in composition of the populations being comparedhave been minimized by statistical methods.All or none: a treatment benefit where, previously, all patients died butnow some survive, or previously some patients died but now all survive.Association: statistical dependence between two or more events, characteristics,or other variables. An association may be fortuitous or may beproduced by various other circumstances; the presence of an associationdoes not necessarily imply a causal relationship.Bias: any tendency to influence the results of a trial (or their interpretation)other than the experimental intervention.Blinding: a technique used in research to eliminate bias by hiding the interventionfrom the patient, clinician, and/or other researchers who areinterpreting results.Blind(ed) study (masked study): A study in which observer(s) and/or subjectsare kept ignorant of the group to which the subjects are assigned,as in an experimental study, or of the population from which the subjectscome, as in a non-experimental or observational study.Blobbogram: see Forrest plot.Case–control study: involves identifying patients who have the outcomeof interest (cases) and control patients without the same outcome, andlooking to see if they had the exposure of interest.Case-series: a report on a series of patients with an outcome of interest.No control group is involved.CER: control event rate; see Event rate.Clinical practice guideline: a systematically developed statement designedto assist health care professionals and patients make decisionsabout appropriate health care for specific clinical circumstances.Cochrane collaboration: a worldwide association of groups who createand maintain systematic reviews of the literature for specific topic areas.Coding: the assignment of (usually numeric) codes to each category ofeach variable.79