Title: Using evidence in practice and Basic Statistics
1Using evidence in practice and Basic Statistics
2Objectives
- To have an overall understanding of the concept
of evidence based practice and its application - To be able to apply simple statistics in practice
- To develop some of the skills in this area
required to pass the AKT
3Schedule
- 1400-1500 Lecture
- Types of evidence
- Hierarchy of evidence
- Practical considerations
- Some simple statistics
- 1500-1515 Tea
- 1515-1615 Doing some numbers
- 1615-1645 Summary and evaluation (plenary)
4What is evidence based practice?
5Evidence based medicine?
- Maybe it is the application of the best available
scientific knowledge to the patients or
populations clinical problem? - Or
- Evidence-based medicine is the integration of
best research evidence with clinical expertise
and patient values Sackett et al (2000)
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7A model of influences inclinical decision making
- Science Social Science
- Scientific Method
- Counting differences
- Understanding differences
- Technical judgement
- Arts and humanities
- Ethics
- Adaptability, broad perspective
- Humane Judgement
Clinical Judgement
8Principles of a health care system
Systematic review Meta-analysis
- equity
- effectiveness
- efficiency
- appropriateness
- accessibility
- responsibility
- humanity
RCT Cohort studies Case control
studies Descriptive studies
quantitative
qualitative
9Your practice is considering reviewing the
treatment for patients with moderate depressive
illness.How would you gather evidence?
10First define your question
- What Population
- What Intervention(s)
- What Condition
- What Outcome
11Levels of evidence
- (I-1) a well done systematic review of 2 or more
RCTs - (I-2) a RCT
- (II-1) a cohort study
- (II-2) a case-control study
- (II-3) a dramatic uncontrolled experiment
- (III) respected authorities, expert committees,
etc.. - (Good Old Boys Sitting Heroically At Tables?)
- (IV)....someone once told me...
12Gathering evidence
- Medline search
- SR and Meta-analyses
- RCTs
- Review articles
- Observational Studies
- Clinical Evidence
- Cochrane
- DTB / MeReC
- RCGP/RCPsych guidelines
- NICE guidelines
- NSF
- Local Guidelines
- Bandolier
- Text books / GP notebook etc
- Ask the consultant or others?
13Mini Test
- You are a member of a health care organisation
commissioning committee. You must decide which of
these four different cardiac rehabilitation
programmes (for people who have suffered a heart
attack) you would prefer to fund. Each programme
costs the same to implement - Programme A reduced the rate of deaths by 20
- Programme B produced an absolute reduction in
deaths of 3 - Programme C increased patients' survival rate
from 84 to 87 - Programme D meant that 33 people needed to enter
the programme to avoid one death. - Which would you choose?
14Terms used to describe differences (in the
results)
- Relative risk (risk ratio)
- What is the chance of the endpoint occurring in
the treatment group compared with the control
group? EER / CER - Absolute risk reduction (risk difference)
- How many fewer patients experienced the endpoint
in the treatment group than in the control
group? CER - EER - Relative risk reduction
- By how much did treatment reduce the chance of
the endpoint occurring in the treatment group
compared with the control group? CER EER / CER - Number needed to treat
- How many people, on average, do we need to treat
for one of them to benefit? 100 / ARR - Odds ratio
- Hazard ratio
15Risks and benefitsSome basic numbers
- 20 additional protection from atherothrombotic
events with Plavix (clopidogrel) over and above
standard therapy (including aspirin). - Proven Safety and tolerability profile.
- Only 1 increase in major bleeding.
- No statistically significant increase in life
threatening or fatal bleeds when used with
aspirin. - Would you prescribe?
- How are they presenting benefit?
- How are they presenting risk?
16The risks of aspirin with and without Clopidogrel
- Clopidogrel and Aspirin
- Major bleed 3.7
- Life threatening bleed 2.2
- Minor bleed 5.1
- Aspirin
- 2.7
- 1.8
- 2.4
- So what are the relative risks here?
17The risks of aspirin with and without Clopidogrel
18So they could have said
- 112.5 additional risk of minor bleeding with
Plavix (clopidogrel) over and above standard
therapy (including aspirin). - Proven unsafe and intolerability profile.
- Only 37 increase in major bleeding and 22
increase in life threatening bleeds but this is
not statistically significant. - Would you prescribe?
19So lies damn lies and statistics?
- Absolute risk / benefits often sound small
- Relative risk / benefits can sound big
- e.g.
- Your chance of winning the lottery with 2 tickets
as opposed to one is increased by 1 in 14million - Your chance of winning the lottery with 2 tickets
as opposed to one is increased by 100
20Numbers Needed to Treat
- The average number of people from a defined
population you would need to treat with a
specific intervention for a given period of time
to achieve one beneficial outcome. - NNT 1 / ARR
- Can you calculate this for winning the lottery
jackpot? - Assume chance of winning is 1 in 14m per ticket
per draw.
21NNTs 2
- ARI 1/14m per ticket per draw
- 1/14m x 2 per week with 1 ticket for each
- draw
- 1/14m x2 x52 x5 for 5 years
- 520/14m
- NNT 14m/520 27,000 approx
- i.e. 27,000 people have to buy 2 tickets a week
for 5 years for one person to win the jackpot
22Summary
- Trials are there to inform clinical decision
making. - Identifying appropriate literature needs to
consider quality / rigour but also practicality. - Some stats are really quite easy but need to be
used with care if you are to be honest.
23Some reading / resources
- Greenhalgh T (2000) How to Read a Paper The
basics of evidence based medicine. London BMJ
Publishing - McGovern D P B, Summerskill W S M, McManus R
(2001) Evidence-based medicine in General
Practice. Oxford BIOS Scientific. OR - Sackett DL, Strauss S, Richardson WS, Rosenberg
W, Hayes RB (2000) Evidence-based Medicine How
to practice and Teach EBM. Edinburgh Churchill
Livinstone
24- Apples were 3 a bag, now only 2 a bag
- Amount saved is 1 per bag (Original rate new
rate) - Saving is one third or 33. (original rate new
rate / original rate i.e. 3-2 1, 1/3 one
third, 1/3 x 100 33
25- Apples were 3 a bag, now only 2 a bag
- Amount saved is 1 per bag (Original rate new
rate) - Saving is one third or 33. (original rate new
rate / original rate i.e. 3-2 1, 1/3 one
third, 1/3 x 100 33
- Apples 30p a bag, now 20p a bag
- Saving is 10p a bag
- Saving is STILL one third
Ratio of new price to old price? 23 or 2/3 0.66
26Now in pictures..
40
30
27Now in pictures..
40
30
10
7.5
28Describing differences in clinical studies
- In the first trial, 40 of people taking the
control died. Only 30 of people taking the
treatment died. - The difference is 10.
- Control rate experimental rate 40 - 30
10 - Absolute risk reduction (ARR) or risk difference
- The difference is 25.
- Control rate experimental rate / control rate
- 40 - 30 10 / 40 1/4 25
- Relative risk reduction (RRR)
- 3. The relative risk is EER / CER 30 / 40
0.75
29Describing differences in clinical studies
- In the second trial, 10 of people taking the
control died. Only 7.5 of people taking the
treatment died. - The difference is 2.5.
- Control rate experimental rate 10 - 7.5
2.5 - Absolute risk reduction (ARR) or risk difference
- The difference is 25.
- Control rate experimental rate / control rate
- (10 - 7.5)/10 2.5 / 10 1/4 25
- Relative risk reduction (RRR)
- 3. Relative Risk EER / CER 7.5 / 10 0.75
30Numbers needed to treat (NNT)
- In the first trial, 40 of people taking the
control died. Only 30 of people taking the
treatment died. - ARR 10
- RRR 25
- Number needed to treat (NNT)
- the number of people who need to take the
treatment rather than the control for one to
benefit - NNT100/ARR()
- In this case 100/10 10
- For every 10 people who takes the treatment, one
benefits who wouldnt have done had they all
taken control.
31Same medicines, different people
- In the second trial, 10 of people taking the
control died. Only 7.5 of people taking the
treatment died. - The absolute risk reduction (ARR) is 2.5
- Control rate experimental rate 10 - 7.5
2.5 - The relative risk reduction (RRR) is still 25
- Control rate experimental rate / control rate
- 10 - 7.5 2.5 / 10 1/4 25
- The number needed to treat is now 40
- 100/ARR
- 100/2.5 40
32Same medicines, different people again
- In RCT 1
- 40 of people taking the control died
- Only 30 of people taking the treatment died
- ARR 10, RRR 25, NNT 10
- In RCT 2
- 10 of people taking the control died
- Only 7.5 of people taking the treatment died
- ARR 2.5, RRR 25, NNT 40
In the higher risk population, we would only need
to treat 10 people to save one.
But in the lower risk population we would need to
treat 40 people to save one.
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