 |
|
Statistical Significance and Clinical Relevance
The Importance of Power in Clinical Trials in Dermatology
Sachin S. Bhardwaj, MD;
Fabian Camacho, MS;
Amy Derrow, MS;
Alan B. Fleischer, Jr, MD;
Steven R. Feldman, MD, PhD
Arch Dermatol. 2004;140:1520-1523.
When evaluating the validity of a study, the reader must consider both the clinical and statistical significance of the findings. A study that claims clinical relevance may lack sufficient statistical significance to make a meaningful statement. Conversely, a study that shows a statistically significant difference in 2 treatment options may lack practicality. The concept of power of a clinical trial refers to the probability of detecting a difference between study groups when a true difference exists. We will discuss statistical power by examining studies too small to identify important differences, studies so large as to identify differences that are not clinically significant, difficult-to-design studies without very large patient populations, and those studies with both adequate power and clinically relevant findings. Dermatologists should not focus on small P values alone to decide whether a treatment is clinically useful; it is essential to consider the magnitude of treatment differences and the power of the study.
Author Affiliations: Center for Dermatology Research, Department of Dermatology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC.
 CiteULike  Connotea  Del.icio.us  Digg  Reddit  Technorati
What's this?
THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES
Errors in the archives of dermatology and the journal of the american academy of dermatology from january through december 2003.
Neville et al.
Arch Dermatol 2006;142:737-740.
ABSTRACT
| FULL TEXT
|
