Search results for "Confidence Intervals"
showing 10 items of 111 documents
Confidence Interval or P-Value?: Part 4 of a Series on Evaluation of Scientific Publications
2009
An understanding of p-values and confidence intervals is necessary for the evaluation of scientific articles. This article will inform the reader of the meaning and interpretation of these two statistical concepts.The uses of these two statistical concepts and the differences between them are discussed on the basis of a selective literature search concerning the methods employed in scientific articles.P-values in scientific studies are used to determine whether a null hypothesis formulated before the performance of the study is to be accepted or rejected. In exploratory studies, p-values enable the recognition of any statistically noteworthy findings. Confidence intervals provide informatio…
Clonal Interference and the Evolution of RNA Viruses
1999
In asexual populations, beneficial mutations that occur in different lineages compete with one another. This phenomenon, known as clonal interference, ensures that those beneficial mutations that do achieve fixation are of large effect. Clonal interference also increases the time between fixations, thereby slowing the adaptation of asexual populations. The effects of clonal interference were measured in the asexual RNA virus vesicular stomatitis virus; rates and average effects of beneficial mutations were quantified.
Preference for place of death in Germany.
2011
Dying in the preferred place is considered a key requirement for a "good death." The aims of our study were to explore preferred places of death of deceased people and their bereaved relatives in Rhineland-Palatinate (Germany). We further wanted to assess the congruence between preferred and actual place of death.The cross-sectional study was based on a random sample of 5000 inhabitants of Rhineland-Palatinate (Germany) who died between May 25 and August 24, 2008. Relatives of these deceased persons were interviewed by a written survey.After removing duplicates, 4967 questionnaires were sent out, 3832 delivered, and 1378 completed, yielding a response rate of 36.0%. Regarding the deceased, …
Physical activity history and end-of-life hospital and long-term care
2009
Background: Little is known about the early predictors of need for care in late life. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether physical activity from midlife onward was associated with hospital and long-term care in the last year of life. Methods: We studied a decedent population of 846 persons aged 66–98 years at death, who, on average 5.8 years prior to death, had participated in an interview about their current and earlier physical activity. Data on the use of care in the last year of life are register-based data and complete. Results: Men needed on average 96 days (SD 7.0) and women 138 days (SD 6.2) of inpatient care in the last year of life. Among men, the risk for all-cau…
Cross-sectional assessment of nut consumption and obesity, metabolic syndrome and other cardiometabolic risk factors: the PREDIMED study
2013
INTRODUCTION: Prospective studies have consistently suggested that nut consumption is inversely related to fatal and non-fatal coronary heart disease. Limited data are available on the epidemiological associations between nut intake and cardiometabolic risk factors. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate associations between frequency of nut consumption and prevalence of cardiometabolic risk factors [obesity, metabolic syndrome (MetS), type-2 diabetes, hypertension, and dyslipidemia] in a Mediterranean population at high cardiovascular risk. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Cross-sectional study of 7,210 men and women (mean age, 67 y) recruited into the PREDIMED study. MetS was defined by the harmonized ATPIII and I…
Recommendations for and warnings against physical activity given to older people by health care professionals.
2005
Abstract Background Little is known about how health care professionals advice older people with chronic conditions about physical exercise. This study investigated exercise counseling in the context of health care as perceived by older people, and factors associated with perceived advice. Design and methods Participants were 580 non-institutional 73- to 92-year-old people who reported at least one contact with health care during the previous 12 months. Results Of all the participants, 23% recalled solely recommendations to exercise, and 9% solely warnings against exercise. Additionally, 34% recalled receiving both recommendations for and warnings against physical activity, and 34% did not …
Everolimus With Reduced Tacrolimus Improves Renal Function in De Novo Liver Transplant Recipients: A Randomized Controlled Trial
2012
In a prospective, multicenter, open-label study, de novo liver transplant patients were randomized at day 30±5 to (i) everolimus initiation with tacrolimus elimination (TAC Elimination) (ii) everolimus initiation with reduced-exposure tacrolimus (EVR+Reduced TAC) or (iii) standard-exposure tacrolimus (TAC Control). Randomization to TAC Elimination was terminated prematurely due to a higher rate of treated biopsy-proven acute rejection (tBPAR). EVR+Reduced TAC was noninferior to TAC Control for the primary efficacy endpoint (tBPAR, graft loss or death at 12 months posttransplantation): 6.7% versus 9.7% (-3.0%; 95% CI -8.7, 2.6%; p<0.001 for noninferiority [12% margin]). tBPAR occurred in…
Modelling and forecasting mortality in Spain
2008
[EN] Experience shows that static life tables overestimate death probabilities. As a consequence of this overestimation the premiums for annuities, pensions and life insurance are not what they actually should be, with negative effects for insurance companies or policy-holders. The reason for this overestimation is that static life tables, through being computed for a specific period of time, cannot take into account the decreasing mortality trend over time. Dynamic life tables overcome this problem by incorporating the influence of the calendar when graduating mortality. Recent papers on the topic look for the development of new methods to deal with this dynamism. Most methods used in dyna…
Laryngeal Mask Airway Position and the Risk of Gastric Insufflation
1998
A potential risk of the laryngeal mask airway (LMA) is an incomplete mask seal causing gastric insufflation or oropharyngeal air leakage.The objective of the present study was to assess the incidence of LMA malpositions by fiberoptic laryngoscopy, and to determine their influence on gastric insufflation and oropharyngeal air leakage. One hundred eight patients were studied after the induction of anesthesia, before any surgical manipulations. After clinically satisfactory LMA placement, tidal volumes were increased stepwise until air entered the stomach, airway pressure exceeded 40 cm H2 O, or air leakage from the mask seal prevented further increases in tidal volume. LMA position in relatio…
Intercurrent factors associated with the development of open-angle glaucoma in The European Glaucoma Prevention Study
2007
Purpose: To evaluate the intercurrent factors for the development of open-angle glaucoma (OAG) in ocular hypertensive patients who were enrolled in the European Glaucoma Prevention Study (EGPS). Design: Randomized, double masked, controlled clinical trial. Methods: setting: Multicenter. study population: A total of 1,077 patients fulfilled a series of inclusion criteria, including intraocular pressure (IOP) 22 to 29 mm Hg, normal and reliable visual fields (VFs) and normal optic disks. intervention: Treatment with dorzolamide or placebo. main outcome measures: Glaucoma-related VF or optic disk changes. Clinical data were collected every six months during a five-year follow-up. Proportional …