Glossary - Research Basics and Terminology

• Value that a certain percentage of data falls below
• Example: 

P=       Population

I=        Intervention (or diagnosis, prognosis) being evaluated

C=       Comparison (usually to gold standard or no treatment)

O=       Outcome

Example:

Is physical activity at least twice a week for more than ten minutes as effective as the antihypertensive X in preventing high blood pressure in adults over 18 years?

P=       adults over 18 years

I=        physical activity at least twice a week for more than ten minutes

C=       antihypertensive X

O=       prevention of high blood pressure

• Proportion of a population having a particular condition at a specific point of time
• Used to look at burden of disease in a population
• Example: percentage of men over 40 with lung cancer today in Bavaria

• Probability that the statistical results occurred by chance
• When p-values is smaller than the stated level of significance (α-value), H0 is rejected