Dear Dr. Arroll

Thank you for your answer.

I agree with you. Effect size should be one of the considering aspects.

I have interest in the factors which influence on valuing the effect size.

It means that what kinds of factors should be considered when I interpret the number of effect size. Basal risk, acute or chronic course of disease, the seriousness of the outcomes….. like these things.

Best regards,

Lee

------------ Original Message ------------

From: 'Bruce Arroll' <[log in to unmask]>

To: 이상무 <[log in to unmask]>, <[log in to unmask]>

Subject: RE: threshold to decide treatment

Date: Mon, 9 Mar 2009 20:19:48 +1300

Dear all

Effect size is only part of the issue. Patient preference is also an issue. We found patients preferred pictures to numbers and NNT. It depends on the comparison as there is a paper which shows nnt is preferred to increase in life expectancy which is often remarkably short even in cardiovascular disease. Making long living humans live longer is difficult to do (other than stopping people smoking)

bruce

Bruce Arroll MBChB, PhD, FRNZCGP, FAFPHM
Professor and Head of Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care
University of Auckland
Private Bag 92019
Auckland

ph (64-9) 3737599 ext 86978
fax (64-9) 3737624

Physical address
School of Population Health room 378 building 730
Tamaki Campus
261 Morrins Rd
Corner Morrins and Merton Rd
Glen Innes
Auckland

From: Evidence based health (EBH) [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of ???
Sent: Monday, 9 March 2009 7:55 p.m.
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: threshold to decide treatment

Dear All

I have much interest in the threshold to make decision to treat according to its effect size.

Would you like to recommend some good references.

I have searched the following articles ;

1) John C. Sinclair et al, When should an effective treatment be used? Journal of Clinical Epidemiology 54 (2001) 253?262

2) Peder Andreas Halvorsen, Decisions on Drug Therapies by Numbers Needed to Treat. Arch Intern Med. 2005;165:1140-1146

3) A A Montgomery and T Fahey, How do patients' treatment preferences compare with those of clinicians? Qual. Health Care 2001;10;i39-i43

Sang Moo Lee MD, PhD

NECA(National Evidence-based healthcare Agency)

Seoul, Korea