Workshop: Practical methods for analysing ordinal outcome data in clinical trials

This workshop was a collaborative endeavour of the Edinburgh Hub and Northwest Hub.

Date: March 30 and 31, 2011.

Venue: John McIntyre Centre, Pollock Halls, Edinburgh, EH16 5AY, UK.

Background

Ordinal outcome data (such as pain scales, Quality of Life scales, etc) are incredibly common in medical research, and yet many analyses reduce them to a binary outcome measure, thus throwing away a large proportion of the information held within them.

Workshop Aims

This workshop provided detailed, practical training in ordinal methods for outcome data to researchers who will then be equipped to use these methods in current and future studies. This will mean that future studies can be more efficient and cost effective (as the analyses will have greater power), and that treatment effects will be understood in greater detail.

Outputs

- a tutorial paper on methods of analysis for ordinal outcome data

- course material (see below). This material is an online learning resource by researchers wishing to know more about ordinal methodology.

Workshop Format

A mixture of talks and practical sessions including design workshops, discussion sessions, and interpretation of SAS computer code and output. Participants should be able to use all of the techniques described in practice by the end of the course. Due to practicality and time constraints, we will not have a hands-on computing session.