The number needed to treat and relevant between-trial comparisons of competing interventions.

ABSTRACT: The number needed to treat (NNT) is considered an intuitive as well as popular effect measure. The aims of this review were to 1) explain why we cannot compare trial-specific NNT estimates for the competing treatments evaluated in different randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and 2) outline the principles of how relative treatment effects of different trials can be compared and results can be presented as NNT, without violating the principles of valid between-trial comparisons. Our premise is that ratio measures for relative treatment effects of response outcomes are less prone to effect modification than absolute difference measures of response outcomes. Accordingly, any between-trial comparisons of the efficacy of competing interventions using the study-specific ORs are less likely to be

SUBMITTER: Jansen JP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6298880 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature