Mother and Child Health: Research Methods G.J.Ebrahim Editor Journal of Tropical Pediatrics, Oxford University Press.
Programmes Menu of Epi-Info
The Normal Distribution A histogram provides a view of how the values of a variable are distributed.
Number of values and the Gausian shape All these histograms illustrate a Normal distribution. As the number increases the Gausian shape becomes more obvious
Scatterplot to show relationship between two numeric variables A scatterplot of dose of anaesthetic and time to recover from anaesthesia, with a regression line and 95% confidence intervals as well as outliers.
Outliers An outlier is an unusually high value of Y for a given value of X. Outliers exert an influence on the regression line.
Rates, Proportions and Ratios Is numerator included in the denominator? Yes Is time included in denominator? YesNo MEASURE: Rate Proportion Ratio EXAMPLE: Incidence Prevalence Maternal Mortality Rate Rate ratio
Absolute risk, Probability of survival and Odds ratio Absolute RiskSurvival Probability Odds 0.901−0.90 = ÷(1−0.9) = −0.75 = ÷(1−0.75) = −0.50= ÷(1−0.50)= −0.25= ÷(1−0.25)= −0.10= ÷(1−0.10)= −0.01= ÷(1−0.01)=0.01
Calculating Numbers Needed to Treat (NNT) Calculate the proportion of people who have the outcome in the intervention group. (Exp.Grp.Evnt Rate; EGER ) Calculate the proportion of people who have the outcome in the control (placebo) group. (Cntrl. Grp.Event Rate; CGER) Calculate the difference between EGER and CGER to obtain Absolute Risk Reduction (ARR) Then NNT = 1÷ARR