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An operational definition of a statistically meaningful trend.

ABSTRACT: Linear trend analysis of time series is standard procedure in many scientific disciplines. If the number of data is large, a trend may be statistically significant even if data are scattered far from the trend line. This study introduces and tests a quality criterion for time trends referred to as statistical meaningfulness, which is a stricter quality criterion for trends than high statistical significance. The time series is divided into intervals and interval mean values are calculated. Thereafter, r(2) and p values are calculated from regressions concerning time and interval mean values. If r(2) ? 0.65 at p ? 0.05 in any of these regressions, then the trend is regarded as statistically meaningful. Out of ten investigated time series from different scientific disciplines, five displayed statistically meaningful trends. A Microsoft Excel application (add-in) was developed which can perform statistical meaningfulness tests and which may increase the operationality of the test. The presented method for distinguishing statistically meaningful trends should be reasonably uncomplicated for researchers with basic statistics skills and may thus be useful for determining which trends are worth analysing further, for instance with respect to causal factors. The method can also be used for determining which segments of a time trend may be particularly worthwhile to focus on.

SUBMITTER: Bryhn AC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3084280 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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An operational definition of a statistically meaningful trend.

Bryhn Andreas C AC Dimberg Peter H PH

PloS one 20110428 4

Linear trend analysis of time series is standard procedure in many scientific disciplines. If the number of data is large, a trend may be statistically significant even if data are scattered far from the trend line. This study introduces and tests a quality criterion for time trends referred to as statistical meaningfulness, which is a stricter quality criterion for trends than high statistical significance. The time series is divided into intervals and interval mean values are calculated. There ...[more]

PMID: 21552532

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Project description:BACKGROUND:Teach Back is a health communication strategy used to confirm patient understanding in a non-shaming way. Although Teach Back is widely recommended as a best practice strategy for improving patient outcomes and organizational health literacy, there is lack of consensus in the literature on the definition of Teach Back and the best methods for training health care workers (HCWs). Our experience suggests that if you teach specific, observable skills, these can be identified in practice and potentially measured in research. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITY:We created a training program, the 5Ts for Teach Back, based on a standardized operational definition of Teach Back and five specific, observable components. Participants use a Teach-Back Observation Tool to identify the 5Ts in practice and during peer evaluation. The program incorporates lecture, observation, practice, and videos with good and bad examples of Teach Back. IMPLEMENTATION:The training was offered to HCWs in a large academic health care system. Flexible training options ranged from a single 4-hour training to a more comprehensive program that included clinic-specific scenarios, peer coaching, and refresher activities over a 6-month period. RESULTS:The 5Ts for Teach Back operationalizes the definition of Teach Back and provides a model for training HCWs in the use of Teach Back. The 5Ts for Teach Back can be used to train any HCW. A single training session does not guarantee proficiency in practice. Through coaching and refresher activities, competence in Teach Back increases. LESSONS LEARNED:Teaching entire clinical units may increase effectiveness, because Teach Back becomes embedded in the unit culture. The Observation Tool can be used for training, coaching, and evaluation. The standardized method and Observation Tool are potentially useful when evaluating Teach Back during outcomes and patient satisfaction research. [HLRP: Health Literacy Research and Practice. 2020;4(2):94-103.] PLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARY: Health care workers may be clearer when giving information to patients if they use Teach Back. Studies do not show what methods are best for training health care workers how to do Teach Back. The 5Ts method breaks Teach Back into five skills that help health care workers do it well. The 5Ts can also confirm use and may be helpful for research.

Project description:BackgroundIdentifying what therapies constitute complementary, alternative, and/or integrative medicine (CAIM) is complex for a multitude of reasons. An operational definition is dynamic, and changes based on both historical time period and geographical location whereby many jurisdictions may integrate or consider their traditional system(s) of medicine as conventional care. To date, only one operational definition of "complementary and alternative medicine" has been proposed, by Cochrane researchers in 2011. This definition is not only over a decade old but also did not use systematic methods to compile the therapies. Furthermore, it did not capture the concept "integrative medicine", which is an increasingly popular aspect of the use of complementary therapies in practice. An updated operational definition reflective of CAIM is warranted given the rapidly increasing body of CAIM research literature published each year.MethodsFour peer-reviewed or otherwise quality-assessed information resource types were used to inform the development of the operational definition: peer-reviewed articles resulting from searches across seven academic databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, AMED, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Scopus and Web of Science); the "aims and scope" webpages of peer-reviewed CAIM journals; CAIM entries found in online encyclopedias, and highly-ranked websites identified through searches of CAIM-related terms on HONcode. Screening of eligible resources, and data extraction of CAIM therapies across them, were each conducted independently and in duplicate. CAIM therapies across eligible sources were deduplicated.ResultsA total of 101 eligible resources were identified: peer-reviewed articles (n = 19), journal "aims and scope" webpages (n = 22), encyclopedia entries (n = 11), and HONcode-searched websites (n = 49). Six hundred four unique CAIM terms were included in this operational definition.ConclusionsThis updated operational definition is the first to be informed by systematic methods, and could support the harmonization of CAIM-related research through the provision of a standard of classification, as well as support improved collaboration between different research groups.

Project description:IntroductionThe operational definitions of treatment response, partial response, and remission in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are widely used in clinical trials and regular practice. However, the clinimetric sensitivity of these definitions, that is, whether they identify patients that experience meaningful changes in their everyday life, remains unexplored.ObjectiveThe objective was to examine the clinimetric sensitivity of the operational definitions of treatment response, partial response, and remission in children and adults with OCD.MethodsPre- and post-treatment data from five clinical trials and three cohort studies of children and adults with OCD (n = 1,528; 55.3% children, 61.1% female) were pooled. We compared (1) responders, partial responders, and non-responders and (2) remitters and non-remitters on self-reported OCD symptoms, clinician-rated general functioning, and self-reported quality of life. Remission was also evaluated against post-treatment diagnostic interviews.ResultsResponders and remitters experienced large improvements across validators. Responders had greater improvements than partial responders and non-responders on self-reported OCD symptoms (Cohen's d 0.65-1.13), clinician-rated functioning (Cohen's d 0.53-1.03), and self-reported quality of life (Cohen's d 0.63-0.73). Few meaningful differences emerged between partial responders and non-responders. Remitters had better outcomes across most validators than non-remitters. Remission criteria corresponded well with absence of post-treatment diagnosis (sensitivity/specificity: 93%/83%). Using both the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) and the Clinical Global Impression Scale yielded more conservative results and more robust changes across validators, compared to only using the Y-BOCS.ConclusionsThe current definitions of treatment response and remission capture meaningful improvements in the everyday life of individuals with OCD, whereas the concept of partial response has dubious clinimetric sensitivity.

Project description:BackgroundDefining and measuring Health presents a challenge, partly due to its conceptual pluralism. To measure Health as an ability to adapt and self-manage, we developed an approach within the theoretical framework of resources and reserves over the life course, recently proposed in the literature. We aimed to (i) use the conceptual framework developed to identify indicators of deteriorating health reserves, (ii) construct an overall health measure from these indicators, (iii) evaluate the association between the overall health measure and subsequent health outcomes and (iv) assess the robustness of our method.MethodsWe used data from 7,043 individuals born in 1958 in Great Britain included in the National Child Development Study. An overall health measure was constructed via the sum of three selected indicators of deteriorating health reserves in mid-life: chronic widespread pain (CWP), Clinical Interview Schedule - revised (CIS-r), and allostatic load (AL). A three-category variable was defined: impaired/medium/optimal overall health. We explored criterion validity by modelling the relationships between the overall health measure, or each reserve taken separately at 44-45 years, and self-rated health at 46 years and mortality up to 58 years, corresponding to 14 years of follow up, using Cox and logistic regressions respectively. We performed comparative analyses to assess the robustness of the method.ResultsHaving an impaired overall health measure was significantly associated with all-cause premature mortality (HRimpaired = 2.74 [1.86; 4.05]) and an increased risk of later fair/poor/very poor self-rated health (ORimpaired = 7.50 [6.29; 8.95]). The overall health measure had a greater effect on the self-rated health estimates than each indicator of deteriorating health reserves considered separately (ORAL medium = 1.82 [1.59; 2.09]; ORAL high = 2.74 [2.37; 3.16]; ORCIS-r = 5.20 [4.45; 6.08]; ORCWP = 2.85 [2.53; 3.21]). CIS-r and allostatic load were also associated with premature mortality contrary to chronic widespread pain (HRAL medium1.82 [1.27; 2.61]; HRAL high = 3.10 [2.19; 4.40]; HRCIS-r = 1.77 [1.22; 2.56]; HRCWP = 1.32 [0.98; 1.76]). The multiple comparative analyses conducted allowed us to assess the robustness of our method within this cohort.ConclusionsWe proposed a method for measuring Health in mid-life in line with the concept of Health as the ability to adapt and self-manage and the concept of health reserves. This method may be applied and further developed within the field of social and positive epidemiology.

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An operational definition of a statistically meaningful trend.

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An operational definition of a statistically meaningful trend.

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