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Article: Beware statistical outputs.
- Article from:
- Bandolier
- Article date:
- September 1, 2006
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Bandolier Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Suppose we have an intervention in which the NNT is 3.3 compared with placebo. That tells us that for every 3.3 people given the intervention, one more would have a treatment-specific outcome than would have occurred with placebo. Put another way, 30% more patients would have the outcome with the intervention than with placebo.
Suppose we were told the relative benefit was 3.3. That tells us that with treatment the event occurs three times more often than it does with placebo.
In both cases, if we knew the average placebo response rate, we would know how many patients would have the outcome with the intervention. Without that knowledge, the relative ...