Open AccessUnderstanding results: P-values, confidence intervals, and number need to treat
Author(s) -
Lawrence Flechner,
Timothy Tseng
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
indian journal of urology/indian journal of urology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.333
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1998-3824
pISSN - 0970-1591
DOI - 10.4103/0970-1591.91447
Subject(s) - medicine , number needed to treat , critical appraisal , evidence based medicine , meaning (existential) , confidence interval , rigour , medical physics , statistical significance , statistical hypothesis testing , randomized controlled trial , publication bias , medline , statistics , alternative medicine , relative risk , epistemology , surgery , pathology , psychotherapist , psychology , mathematics , philosophy , political science , law
With the increasing emphasis on evidence-based medicine, the urology literature has seen a rapid growth in the number of high-quality randomized controlled trials along with increased statistical rigor in the reporting of study results. P-values, CI, and number needed to treat (NNT) are becoming increasingly common in the literature. This paper seeks to familiarize the reader with statistical measures commonly used in the evidence-based literature.