February, 2003
© 2000, 2001, 2003 Scott S. Emerson, M.D., Ph.D.
Summary
measure for comparison should most often be driven by scientific
issues
·Thresholds
may be most important clinically
·Means allow
estimates of total costs/benefits
·Medians less
sensitive to outliers
-Sometimes
clinical importance is not proportional to magnitude of measurements
-However,
sometimes effect of intervention is only on outliers