Special features

Interpreting data — assessing study results and reports

By Sarah L. Vowler, MSc

Interpreting the results of clinical trials is often difficult, and pharmacists should be able to establish whether the techniques used are appropriate for the data presented. This article, the second in a special feature, provides guidance on interpreting some of the methods commonly seen in scientific papers

This article as a PDF (140K)

Sarah Vowler is a medical statistician at the Centre for Applied Medical Statistics, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge

Forest plots

Forest plots are used to summarise the results of meta-analysis

SUMMARY

Interpreting the results of studies and clinical trials is often difficult, but health care professionals need to understand why results are presented in different ways and what to look out for. This article provides guidance on assessing the quality of trial data reports, and interpreting the types of analysis that are commonly used in scientific papers.

Full text article PDF (140K)