Glossary - Research Basics and Terminology | iLearn

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This glossary explains common terminology used in research articles. It helps you to understand the articles which are included in the following chapters of this course.

If you are looking for more terminology, the glossary of 'The Cochrane Collaboration' is a useful resource which you can find here.

Browse the glossary using this index

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N

Nominal Scale

(Last edited: Tuesday, 14 March 2017, 8:55 AM)

Classification scale; each person is assigned to one “type”
Type of data: categorical, qualitative, discrete
Example: blood type (A, B, 0), type of breath sound, type of arthritis, etc.

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Normal Curve

(Last edited: Tuesday, 14 March 2017, 8:55 AM)

Bell-shaped
Mean, mode, and median all have the same value

Normal Curve

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Normal Distribution

(Last edited: Tuesday, 14 March 2017, 8:55 AM)

Data that is symmetrically distributed around a mean value
Description of distribution via mean and standard deviation

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Null Hypothesis (H0 or Ho)

(Last edited: Tuesday, 14 March 2017, 8:55 AM)

Statistical hypothesis
The population parameter is equal to the claimed value

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Number Needed to Treat (NNT)

(Last edited: Tuesday, 14 March 2017, 8:55 AM)

The number of patients that need to be treated before one person would experience the desired outcome
Number needed to treat to benefit: number of patients that need to be treated before one person would experience a beneficial outcome
Example: NNT= 20: this means that 20 people need to be given a stroke prevention drug before one stroke can be prevented
Number needed to treat to harm: number of patients that need to be treated before one person would experience a harmful outcome
Example: NNT= 40: this means that 40 people can be treated with cardiac surgery before one person dies

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