Section: 
Science articles
Science articlesEstimation of the effect size of clinical intervention in otorhinolaryngology
A. A. Korneenkov (1), I. V. Fanta (1)
(1) Saint Petersburg Research Institute of Ear, Throat, Nose and Speech, Saint Petersburg, 190013, Russia
UDK: 519.23:303.714:004.43:616.212.5-089.5
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18692/1810-4800-2020-2-42-50
ABSTRACT
The article discusses the concepts of measures of the effect of clinical effects, quantitative methods for their calculation and interpretation, their importance for making medical decisions. Algorithms for calculating effect measures are described for different clinical trial endpoints represented by quantitative (numerical) or binary types of variables, and for different types of effect size indicator (absolute, relative effect size, or clinical effectiveness indicator). It is shown that in the context of assessing the effect of therapeutic effects and clinical efficacy in general, measuring the size of the effect provides a valuable tool for data analysis. Evaluation and interpretation of the effect of the therapeutic modality only on the basis of the level of significance p obtained by testing statistical hypotheses without specifying the size of the effect is not sufficient to understand the importance of using the effect in clinical practice. To obtain an adequate quantitative assessment of the effect and its interpretation, the concept of the size of the effect is a convenient system of methods that is widely used. To illustrate the calculation and interpretation of the size of the effect, published data from clinical studies of the effectiveness of local anesthesia to reduce pain after septoplasty were used. It is shown how, using the presented technique, it is possible to efficiently calculate and easily interpret measures of the effect of the application of local anesthesia. All calculations were performed in the statistical program R.
Publication date:
13.04.2020
Keywords:
clinical effect size, effect size interpretation, risk difference, mean difference, standardized mean difference, number of patients who need treatment, R program, R language. For citation:
Korneenkov A. A., Fanta I. V. Estimation of the effect size of clinical intervention in otorhinolaryngology. Rossiiskaya otorinolaringologiya. 2020;19(2):42–50. https://doi.org/10.18692/1810-4800-2020-2-42-50