Browse the glossary:
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sample
— A selected portion of a population, e.g. of patients; … (read more)
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sample size
— The actual or intended number of participants in a study; … (read more)
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scale
— A instrument for measuring or rating an outcome over a given range of values; … (read more)
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screening
— Using tests to find out whether or not a person has a specific health condition before it causes any symptoms; … (read more)
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screening test
— A procedure used to find out whether or not a person has a specific health condition before it causes any symptoms; … (read more)
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secondary outcome
— Outcomes measured in a study, which were pre-specified as less important than the primary outcomes; … (read more)
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selection criteria
(eligibility criteria, exclusion criteria, inclusion criteria)
— In systematic reviews, characteristics of studies used to decide whether they should be included; … (read more)
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sensitivity
(true positive rate)
— For tests, the proportion of patients with the condition of interest who have a positive test result; … (read more)
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shared decision making
— A process through which patients and healthcare providers decide together how to manage health conditions; … (read more)
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single blinding
(single masking)
— Actions intended to prevent one group of people involved in a study knowing which participants received which treatment; … (read more)
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single participant trial
(single case design)
— A study in which different treatments are allocated at random to be taken at different times by one person; … (read more)
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smallest important difference
— The smallest treatment effect that the people affected would identify as important; … (read more)
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specificity
(true negative rate)
— For tests, the proportion of patients without the condition of interest who have a negative test result; … (read more)
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spin
(interpretation bias)
— Bias resulting from interpreting the results of a study in a way which goes beyond an objective assessment of the evidence.; … (read more)
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sponsor bias
— Bias resulting from the conduct of a study, or the interpretation of results, motivated by financial or academic vested interests.; … (read more)
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statistical power
— In treatment comparisons, the likelihood that a study will be able to record sufficient outcome data to yield a statistically reliable measure of treatment effects; … (read more)
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statistically significant
— A result that is unlikely to have happened by chance. The usual threshold for this judgement is a likelihood of less than 5%; … (read more)
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stratified randomization
(stratification, stratified allocation)
— The process of assigning participants in a study to treatment comparison groups based on characteristics (strata) thought to affect their prognosis; … (read more)
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strength of recommendation
(grade of recommendation)
— The extent to which guideline developers are confident that the desirable consequences of adhering to a recommendation outweigh the undesirable consequences; … (read more)
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study
(evaluation, test, test of treatments, treatment comparison, treatment test, trial)
— An investigation using specified methods to answer a research question; e.g. about the effects of treatments; … (read more)
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study design see type of study
(research design)
— Key features of research methods used to categorize types of studies; … (read more)
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study participants
(subjects*, participants)
— The people included in a study; … (read more)
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study population
— All of the participants in a study; … (read more)
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study, before-after see before-after study
(before and after study, uncontrolled before and after study, uncontrolled before-after study)
— A type of non-randomized study in which health conditions are measured before and after a treatment; … (read more)
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study, case-control see case-control study
(matched pair study)
— A type of non-randomized study comparing the characteristics of people with a particular health condition (cases) with the characteristics of people without that condition (controls), to find what may have caused the problem; … (read more)
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study, cluster randomized see cluster randomized study
(cluster randomized trial, cluster randomized controlled trial, group randomized trial)
— A treatment comparison in which pre-existing groups of people (e.g. hospitals) are randomly allocated to one or more treatment comparison groups; … (read more)
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study, cohort see cohort study
(longitudinal study, prospective study, retrospective study)
— A type of non-randomized study in which defined groups of people (cohort) are followed up over time to explore the effects of treatments or other factors that may affect health outcomes; … (read more)
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study, comparative see comparative study
— Any study that compares two or more treatments or factors; … (read more)
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study, controlled see controlled study
— A study with two or more treatment comparison groups; … (read more)
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study, controlled before-after see controlled before-after study
(controlled before and after study, CBA study,)
— A type of non-randomized study in which outcomes are measured before and after a treatment, both in a group that receives the treatment and in another comparison group; … (read more)
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study, cross-sectional see cross-sectional study
(disease frequency survey, prevalence study)
— A study measuring the distribution of a health condition, or other characteristics in a population at a particular point in time; … (read more)
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study, crossover see crossover study
(crossover trial)
— A type of randomized study in which the effects of two or more treatments are compared by giving them in different order (determined randomly) to each participant; … (read more)
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study, factorial see factorial study
(factorial design, factorial trial)
— A type of randomized study in which the effects of two or more treatments are compared by giving them separately, together, or not at all; … (read more)
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study, interrupted time series see interrupted time series study
(interrupted time series analysis, ITS study)
— A type of non-randomized study that measures an outcome at multiple time points before and after a treatment (the ”interruption”); … (read more)
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study, multicentre see multicentre study
— A study in which several sites (e.g. hospitals or primary care clinics) collaborate; … (read more)
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study, non-randomized see non-randomized study
(non-experimental study, observational study,)
— A category of studies that does not use random allocation to assign participants to treatment comparison groups; … (read more)
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study, parallel group see parallel group study
— A type of study in which two or more groups of participants receive different treatments at the same time; … (read more)
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study, qualitative see qualitative study
(qualitative research)
— A study based on analyses of interviews, focus groups or observations used for gathering non-numerical data to describe social phenomena, such as experiences of health problems and treatments; … (read more)
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study, quantitative see quantitative study
(quantitative research)
— A study based on analyses of numerical data; … (read more)
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study, randomized see randomized study
(randomized control trial, RCT, randomized trial, randomized controlled trial (should not be used))
— A category of studies comparing two or more treatments in which random allocation is used to assign participants to treatment comparison groups; … (read more)
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study, repeated measures see repeated measures study
— A type of non-randomized study, similar to an interrupted time series study, in which outcomes are measured in the same participants at multiple time points; … (read more)
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subgroup
— A subset of a participants in a study or a population who share one or more specified characteristics; e.g. women or children; … (read more)
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subgroup analysis
— Analyses restricted to selected groups of participants in a study to assess whether effect estimates vary across subgroups.; … (read more)
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summary of findings
(summary of findings, iSoF, interactive summary of findings)
— A table summarising key information about the most important treatment outcomes, including a summary of the results and the certainty of the evidence.; … (read more)
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surrogate outcome
(proxy outcome, substitute outcome)
— Outcomes measured in a study, which are not of direct practical importance but are believed to reflect outcomes that are important; … (read more)
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systematic review
— A summary of studies addressing a clear question, using systematic and explicit methods to identify, select, and critically appraise relevant studies, and to collect and analyse data from them; … (read more)