BMJ 2008;336:1205 (31 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.a163
Letters
All cause mortality
Meaningless without time frame
| The first 100% of the full text of this article appears below. |
What exactly does it mean to say that a treatment produces a decline in "all cause mortality by 21%" in a group of patients aged 80 and over?1 How long did the treatment postpone deaths from "all causes?" A month? A year? Forever?
Use of all cause mortality without a time frame stops researchers and readers asking what the treated group end up dying from. By focusing too narrowly we fail to clarify the true consequences of taking a particular treatment.
Robert W Leckridge, locum consultant
1 Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital, Glasgow G12 0XQ
bobleckridge@gmail.com
Competing interests: None declared.
- Staessen JA, Richart T, Verdecchia P. Reducing blood pressure in people of different ages. BMJ 2008;336:1080-1. (17 May.)
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- Reducing blood pressure in people of different ages
- Jan A Staessen, Tom Richart, and Paolo Verdecchia
BMJ 2008 336: 1080-1081.[Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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