Making neuropsychological outcomes research consumer friendly: a commentary on Keith et al. (2002)

J. R. Keith et al. (2002) examined the effects of cardiopulmonary bypass surgery on cognition and suggest that the use of parametric, inferential statistics may have advantages over incidence reports. This commentary addresses several issues that arise when conducting outcomes studies within the context of evidence-based medicine. "Consumer friendly" research within the context of evidence-based medicine must carefully attend to the selection of appropriate and relevant reference groups and recognize that clinicians practice and record outcomes as individual rather than as group events. Traditional null hypothesis significance testing and inferential statistics are useful in establishing the reliability of group differences but do not provide the statistical indexes and base-rate information that clinicians can easily use in their treatment of individual patients. Data analysis and presentation of results using methods from clinical epidemiology can make neuropsychological outcomes research consumer friendly and help bridge the all too frequent schism between academic research and clinical practice.