DNP 820 Compare statistical and clinical significance
Re: Topic 5 DQ 1
The nursing practice or clinical problems have the potential of derailing patient outcomes if not solved; as such, research plays a central role in solving issues. When research is undertaken to help solve an identified problem, then the results obtained can either be clinically significant, statistically significant or both. Statistical significance is a case where the findings of the research have a measure that shows that it is highly unlikely that the observed phenomenon happened by chance (Fleishmann & Vaughan, 2019). It, therefore, reflects the extent to which a value falls short or exceeds what is expected. On the other hand, clinical significance refers to a case where a particular intervention or treatment course has genuine and quantifiable impacts (Scott, 2017). Hence, the clinical significance is connected to the research findings’ practical importance.
It is possible for the findings from a project or practice not to be statistically significant but still end up being clinically significant. Such a phenomenon may happen in the case where a project uses small sample sizes, hence underpowered to give an appropriate sample size which can help in detecting the difference between the study groups (Sharma et al.,2021). Even though the difference between the groups may go undetected, the results could still be clinically significant when the treatment results in substantial improvement. In other words, the observed p-value may be larger than the accepted 0.05, but the researcher could still observe notable treatment differences between the study groups.
In some cases, the clinical significance measure can be used to classify outcomes as successful. For instance, in cases where the decision hinges on the practical value or relevance of treatment, then statistical significance should not be part of the initial criterion (Sharma et al., 2021). Confidence intervals are then applied to determine the relevance of the findings to practice. In research involving pain medication, the researcher can use a pain scale to ascertain the extent to which the drug relieves pain.
References
Fleischmann, M., & Vaughan, B. (2019). Commentary: statistical significance and clinical significance-a call to consider patient-reported outcome measures, effect size, confidence interval and minimal clinically important difference (MCID). Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, 23(4), 690-694. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbmt.2019.02.009.
Scott, I. A. (2017). Statistical and clinical significance. Medical Journal of Australia, 207(5), 187–189. https://doi.org/10.5694/mja16.01148
Sharma, H. (2021). Statistical significance or clinical significance? A researcher’s dilemma for appropriate interpretation of research results. Saudi Journal of Anaesthesia, 15(4), 431. https://dx.doi.org/10.4103%2Fsja.sja_158_21
