Para quem trabalha com populações humanas (isto inclui grupos de pacientes) recomendo a leitura do artigo Seven mistakes and potential solutions in epidemiology, including a call for a World Council of Epidemiology and Causality publicado no Emerging Themes in Epidemiology (2009, 6:6) e que foi classificado como Highly accessed.
O artigo indica sete áreas de erros frequentes no relato de estudos epidemiológicos. Ver os exemplos e as formas de corrigi-los pode ser bastante útil para todos os que escrevem artigos que relatam estudos com populações ou grupos populacionais.
Os erros principais e suas soluções:
Erro | Solução |
Failing to provide the context and definitions of study populations | Describe the study population in detail |
Insufficient attention to evaluation of error | Don't pretend error does not exist |
Not demonstrating comparisons are like-for-like | Start with detailed comparisons of groups |
Either overstatement or understatement of the case for causality | Never say this design cannot contribute to causality or imply causality is ensured by your design |
Not providing both absolute and relative summary measures | Give numbers, rates and comparative measures, and adjust summary measures such as odds ratios appropriately |
In intervention studies not demonstrating general health benefits | Ensure general benefits (mortality/morbidity) before recommending application of cause-specific findings |
Failure to utilise study data to benefit populations | Establish a World Council on Epidemiology to help infer causality from associations and apply the work internationally |
Leia o artigo com exemplos e comentários que ajudam muito.
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário