Abstract
In this overview, we go over the principal concepts of epidemiology and statistics that are tested regularly in rheumatology board exams. It helps distinguish key type of variables that rheumatologists come across, which are categorical and continuous variables. The chapter also covers measures of central tendency—mean, median, as well as mode. Additionally, it covers distribution of data, which includes standard deviation and interquartile range. Types of study design including case-control, cohort, as well as randomized controlled trials are categorized in detail. Fundamental epidemiological theories including incidence, prevalence, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, number needed to treat, number needed to harm, and odds ratio are defined, and basic formulas and calculations are described. Furthermore, this chapter describes a few important types of biases that are usually tested on boards. All of these concepts help rheumatologists to read, understand, and apply scientific literature to evidence-based clinical practice.
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Mehta, B. (2020). Clinical Epidemiology in Rheumatology. In: Efthimiou, P. (eds) Absolute Rheumatology Review. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23022-7_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23022-7_2
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