This blog introduces you to the concept of confounding. There is a clear explanation and then examples and methods to minimise the effect of confounding during study design and statistical analysis.
A beginner’s guide to standard deviation and standard error: what are they, how are they different and how do you calculate them?
This blog critically appraises a randomized controlled trial looking at the effectiveness of expiratory muscle training on the pulmonary function of patients with high spinal cord injury.
In addictions research, there’s a big emphasis on events leading up to recovery. But what about after?
In this blog, Sophia discusses the term ‘treatment-resistant depression’ (TRD) and provides a summary of a 2018 Cochrane review which assessed the effectiveness for psychological therapies for adults with TRD.
This is a Portuguese translation of the ninth in a series of 36 blogs explaining 36 Key Concepts we need to be able to understand to think critically about treatment claims. With thanks to Ney Duarte Neto and Cochrane Brazil for the translation.
This blog explains that people often assume that early detection of disease leads to better outcomes. However screening tests can be inaccurate (e.g. misclassifying people who do not have disease as having disease). Screening can also cause harm by labelling people as being sick when they are not and because of side effects of the tests and treatments.
Carryover effects can affect outcomes and results of research, and are important to consider, particularly in the design phase of a study.
This is a Portuguese translation of the eighth in a series of 36 blogs explaining 36 Key Concepts we need to be able to understand to think critically about treatment claims. With thanks to Marília Ferreira and Cochrane Brazil for the translation.
This blog explains that increasing the dose or amount of a treatment (e.g. how many vitamin pills you take) often increases harms without increasing beneficial effects. If a treatment is believed to be beneficial, we should not assume that more of it is better.
Heidi Gardner is part of a team of researchers working on the PRioRiTy II project, a research project aiming to identify the most important things that we currently don’t know about things that affect whether people stay involved in trial. Read more about the project here and then have your say in identifying the top 10 questions about trial retention that still need answering.
Publication bias remains a problem in health research. This blog by Andrés explores the issues we face and provides detail of the initiatives designed to address the problem.
This blog critically appraises a randomized controlled trial looking at the effectiveness of eccentric exercises in combination with PRP injections versus saline injection.
Informed Health Choices (IHC) ‘Key Concepts’ videos in German (3.1 – 3.6). These set of key concepts help people to make informed choices about treatments
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Conducting successful research requires choosing the appropriate study design. This article describes the most common types of designs conducted by researchers.
A beginner’s guide to standard deviation and standard error: what are they, how are they different and how do you calculate them?
The nuts and bolts 20 minute tutorial from Tim.