IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/medema/v29y2009i3p380-390.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Weighing Harm in Therapeutic Decisions of Smear-Negative Pulmonary Tuberculosis

Author

Listed:
  • Juan Moreira

    (Centro de Epidemiología Comunitaria y Medicina Tropical, Esmeraldas, Ecuador, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Clinical Sciences, Antwerp, Belgium, jmoreira@itg.be)

  • Bettina Bisig

    (Institute of Tropical Medicine, Clinical Sciences, Antwerp, Belgium)

  • Petronille Muwawenimana

    (Centre Hospitalier Universitaire, Kigali, Rwanda)

  • Paulin Basinga

    (Université Nationale de Rwanda, Ecole de Santé Publique, Kigali, Rwanda)

  • Zeno Bisoffi

    (Ospedale Sacrocuore, Centro per le malattie tropicale, Negrar, Italy)

  • Frank Haegeman

    (Support to Health Sector Reform Project, Belgian Technical Cooperation, Vientiane, Lao PDR)

  • Panduru Kishore

    (Manipal Teaching Hospital, Pokhara, Nepal)

  • Jef Van den Ende

    (Institute of Tropical Medicine, Clinical Sciences, Antwerp, Belgium)

Abstract

Purpose. To relate the intuitive weight of harm by commission and harm by omission in therapeutic decisions for pulmonary tuberculosis, and to compare it with a weight based on probabilities. Methods. Clinicians were asked for an estimation of probabilities related with the outcome of treated and nontreated pulmonary tuberculosis and for the toll of wrong decisions. Three ratios of the weight of forgoing a treatment in false-negative patients against the weight of treating false-positives were calculated. The first was based on intuitive estimations, whereas the second and third were based on calculated, either through intuitive estimations of probabilities or through literature data. The association between experience and the difference between the intuitive and the calculated ratios was assessed. Results. Eighty-one participants from Ecuador, Laos, Nepal, and Rwanda responded. The ratio of intuitive weights was 2.0 (interquartile range [IQR], 1.0—4.0) and the ratio of calculated weights based on intuitive probabilities was 64 (IQR, 25.0—169.6; P

Suggested Citation

  • Juan Moreira & Bettina Bisig & Petronille Muwawenimana & Paulin Basinga & Zeno Bisoffi & Frank Haegeman & Panduru Kishore & Jef Van den Ende, 2009. "Weighing Harm in Therapeutic Decisions of Smear-Negative Pulmonary Tuberculosis," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 29(3), pages 380-390, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:medema:v:29:y:2009:i:3:p:380-390
    DOI: 10.1177/0272989X08327330
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0272989X08327330
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0272989X08327330?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:medema:v:29:y:2009:i:3:p:380-390. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.