Not all EBP projects result in statistically significant results. Define clinical significance, and explain the difference between clinical and statistical significance. How can you use clinical significance to support positive outcomes in your project?
Topic 8, Discussion Question 2
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Topic 8, Discussion Question 2
Studies can reach statistical significance but provide evidence that is not clinically meaningful, or results could not be statistically significant but very clinically relevant. Therefore, it is important to understand the difference between clinical significance and statistical significance (Armijo-Olivo, 2018). In medical, clinical significance indicates whether the results of a study are meaningful or not for several stakeholders. A clinically relevant intervention is one whose effects are large enough to make the associated costs, inconveniences, and harms worthwhile.
On the other hand, statistical significance is based on hypothesis testing. The decision to accept or reject the null hypothesis is based on predetermined levels of probability (i.e. p < 0.05 or 0.01) used to test the strength of the evidence against the null hypothesis (Armijo-Olivo, 2018). Clinical significance is assigned to a result where a course of treatment has genuine and quantifiable effects while statistical significance is assigned to a result when an event is found to be unlikely to have occurred by chance (Armijo-Olivo, 2018). Clinically significant results are reproducible to a much higher degree than those which are merely statistically significant, and therefore can be used in scenarios with higher stakes, where even a modest margin of error would be too high.
Clinical significance will be of great importance to the handwashing and hygiene study because it will facilitate the understanding and interpretation of the results. Through clinical significance, stakeholders will get to understand the size and scope of the study impact (Armijo-Olivo, 2018). It is used as a critical tool for decision-making in the medical field. Clinical significance is established by experts in the field who decide if a statistically significant difference is clinically important.
Reference
Armijo-Olivo, S. (2018). The importance of determining the clinical significance of research results in physical therapy clinical research. Brazilian journal of physical therapy, 22(3), 175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bjpt.2018.02.001