Question

What is the difference between statistically significant evidence and clinically significant evidence? How would each of these findings be used to advance an evidenced-based project?

Answer 1

Ans) In contrast, statistical significance is ruled by the p-value (and confidence intervals). If a difference is statistically significant, it simply means it was unlikely to have occurred by chance. It doesn't necessarily tell us about the importance of this difference or how meaningful it is for patients.

- In clinical practice, the "clinical significance" of a result is dependent on its implications on existing practice-treatment effect size being one of the most important factors that drives treatment decisions. It suggests that the clinical significance should reflect "the extent of change, whether the change makes a real difference to subject lives, how long the effects last, consumer acceptability, cost-effectiveness, and ease of implementation". While there are established, traditionally accepted values for statistical significance testing, this is lacking for evaluating clinical significance. More often than not, it is the judgment of the clinician (and the patient) which decides whether a result is clinically significant or not.