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Glossary of terms used in health research - T

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  • t distribution
    • Wikipedia
      A statistical distribution describing the distribution of the means of samples taken from a population with unknown variance.
  • t test
    • Wikipedia
      A statistical hypothesis test derived from the t distribution. It is used to compare continuous data in two groups. (Also called Student’s t-test.)
      A statistical test that is used to find out if there is a real difference between the means (averages) of two different groups. It is sometimes used to see if there is a significant difference in response to treatment between groups in a clinical trial.
  • Target condition
    • In diagnostic test studies, the condition the investigators or clinicians are particularly interested in identifying (e.g., tuberculosis, lung cancer, or iron-deficiency anemia).
  • Target endpoints
    • In intervention studies, the condition the investigators or clinicians are particularly interested in identifying and in which it is anticipated the intervention will decrease (e.g., myocardial infarction, stroke, or death) or increase (e.g., ulcer healing).
  • Target-negative
    • In diagnostic test studies, patients who do not have the target condition.
  • Target-positive
    • In diagnostic test studies, patients who do have the target condition.
  • Technical efficiency
    • With technical efficiency, an objective such as the provision of tonsillectomy for children in need of this procedure is taken as given. Technical efficiency is about how best to achieve that objective. Strictly, technical efficiency is about ensuring the production of the same level of output with less of one input and no more of other inputs or, equivalently, maximizing the output that one gets from given quantities of inputs. Technical efficiency is linked to cost effectiveness. The combination of technically efficient inputs that minimizes the cost of achieving a given level of output is that which is cost effective.
  • Technical report
    • Wikipedia
      A technical report (also: scientific report) is a document that describes the process, progress, or results of technical or scientific research or the state of a technical or scientific research problem.
      Technical report [MeSH - publication type]: work consisting of a formal report giving details of the investigation and results of a medical or other scientific problem. When issued by a government agency or comparable official body, its contents may be classified, unclassified, or declassified with regard to security clearance. This publication type may also cover a scientific paper or article that records the current state or current position of scientific research and development. If so labeled by the editor or publisher, this publication type may be properly used for journal articles.
  • Technology assessment
    • MeSH - Wikipedia
      A multi-disciplinary field of policy analysis that examines the medical, economic, social and ethical implications of the incremental value, diffusion and use of a medical technology in health care.
      Evaluation of biomedical technology in relation to cost, efficacy, utilization, etc., and its future impact on social, ethical, and legal systems.
      Also called biomedical technology assessment, health technology assessment.
  • Tele-epidemiology
    • Wikipedia
      A methodological and application area of epidemiology concerned with the application of space-based systems (communication, Earth observation, positioning systems, Geographical Information Systems. biostatistics, etc.) in the study of the space and time distribution of health events or disease process in populations. In this broader sense, the term includes applications of all space-based systems to the field of epidemiology.
  • Telemedicine
    • MeSH - Wikipedia
      Telemedicine is a rapidly developing application of clinical medicine where medical information is transferred through interactive audiovisual media for the purpose of consulting, and sometimes remote medical procedures or examinations.
      Delivery of health services via remote telecommunications. This includes interactive consultative and diagnostic services.
  • Temporal sequence
    • The sequence of events in time, used as one of the criteria in evaluating causation – the exposure or intervention must have occurred before the outcome to be a plausible cause of the outcome.
  • Temporality
    • Wikipedia
      Temporality means that the exposure always precedes the effect.
  • Term birth
    • MeSH
      A live birth or stillbirth that takes place between 37 completed and 42 completed weeks of gestational age.
      Childbirth at the end of a normal duration of pregnancy, between 37 to 40 weeks of gestation or about 280 days from the first day of the mother's last menstrual period.
      Also called full-term birth.
  • Terminology
    • MeSH - Wikipedia
      Lists of the technical terms or expressions used in a specific field. These lists may or may not be formally adopted or sanctioned by usage.
      The terms, expressions, designations, or symbols used in a particular science, discipline, or specialized subject area.
  • Tertiary care
    • Wikipedia
      Medical care provided to a patient when referred by one health professional to another with more specialized qualifications or interests. There are two levels of referred care: secondary and tertiary. Secondary care is usually provided by a broadly skilled specialist such as a general surgeon, general internist, or obstetrician.
      Refers to medical and related services of high complexity and usually high cost.
      Also called tertiary health care.
  • Tertiary level research
    • Synthesis (summary) of secondary level research, i.e. of systematic reviews and meta-analyses in the form of review of reviews..
  • Tertiary prevention
    • MeSH - Wikipedia
      Intervention after a sign or symptom is present, to reduce the likelihood of persistence or progression.
      Measures aimed at providing appropriate supportive and rehabilitative services to minimize morbidity and maximize quality of life after a long-term disease or injury is present.
  • Test article
    • Any drug (including a biological product for human use), medical device for human use, human food additive, color additive, electronic product, or any other article subject to regulation under the FD&C Act.
  • Test of association
    • A statistical test to assess whether the value of one variable is associated (i.e. varies with) the value of another variable, or whether the presence or absence of a factor is more likely when a particular outcome is present.
  • Test threshold
    • The probability below which the clinician decides a diagnosis warrants no further consideration.
  • Textbook
    • Wikipedia
      Book intended for use in the study of specific subjects, containing systematic presentation of the principles and essential knowledge of the subjects.
  • The 10/90 gap
    • Wikipedia
      While 90% of the global burden of disease is in developing countries, only an estimated 10% of the global resources are spent on disease problems of developing countries.
  • Theoretical saturation
    • The point at which iterations among data collection, analysis, and theory development yield a well-developed concept, and further observations yield minimal or no new information to further challenge or elaborate the concept.
  • Therapeutic equivalency
    • MeSH
      The relative equivalency in the efficacy of different modes of treatment of a disease, most often used to compare the efficacy of different pharmaceuticals to treat a given disease.
  • Therapeutic human experimentation
    • MeSH
      Human experimentation that is intended to benefit the subjects on whom it is performed.
  • Third-party consent
    • MeSH
      Informed consent given by someone other than the patient or research subject.
  • Third trimester pregnancy
    • MeSH
      The last third of a human pregnancy, from the beginning of the 29th through the 42nd completed week (197 to 294 days) of gestation.
  • Threshold NNT
    • Maximum number needed to treat (NNT) or number needed to harm (NNH) accepted as justifying the benefits and harms of therapy.
  • Time-series design
    • In this study design, data are collected at several times both before and after the intervention; data collected before the intervention allow the underlying trend and cyclical (seasonal) effects to be estimated. Data collected after the intervention allow the intervention effect to be estimated while accounting for underlying secular trends. The time-series design monitors the occurrence of outcomes or endpoints over a number of cycles and determines whether the pattern changes coincident with the intervention.
  • Time to event
    • Wikipedia
      A description of the data in studies where the analysis relates not just to whether an event occurs but also when. Such data are analyzed using survival analysis. (Also called survival data.)
  • Time trade-off
    • Wikipedia
      An alternative, and supposedly simpler, approach to establishing health utilities. Here, the respondent faces a choice between living for a given period of time (t) in the specified health state or a shorter period of time (x) in full health. The duration in full health is altered until the respondent regards the two options as equivalent to each other. The value of the health state is then given by (x/t). As with the standard gamble technique, the method described here needs to be adjusted for short-term conditions.
  • Timeliness of reporting
    • Proportion of all expected reports in a reporting system received by a given due date.
  • Tolerability of an intervention
    • Usually refers to medically less important (that is, without serious or permanent sequelae), but unpleasant adverse effects of drugs. These include symptoms such as dry mouth, tiredness, etc, that can affect a person’s quality of life and willingness to continue the treatment. As these adverse effects usually develop early on and are relatively frequent, randomized controlled trials may yield reliable data on their incidence.
  • Total cost
    • Wikipedia
      The sum of all the fixed and variable costs associated with a particular scale of provision of a program or intervention. The greater the scale of provision, the larger will be the total costs.
  • Total expenditure on health
    • Wikipedia
      Total (or national) expenditure on health is based on the following identity and functional boundaries of medical care: Personal health care services + Medical goods dispensed to outpatients = Total personal expenditure on health + Services of prevention and public health + Health administration and health insurance = Total current expenditure on health + Investment into medical facilities = Total expenditure on health.
      The sum of general government health expenditure and private health expenditure in a given year, calculated in national currency units in current prices.
  • Total fertility rate
    • Wikipedia
      The average number of children a hypothetical cohort of women would have at the end of their reproductive period if they were subject during their whole lives to the fertility rates of a given period and if they were not subject to mortality. It is expressed as children per woman.
      The total fertility rate (TFR, sometimes also called the fertility rate, period total fertility rate (PTFR) or total period fertility rate (TPFR)) of a population is the average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime if (1) she were to experience the exact current age-specific fertility rates (ASFRs) through her lifetime, and (2) she were to survive from birth through the end of her reproductive life. It is obtained by summing the single-year age-specific rates at a given time.
      The expected average number of children that would be born to a woman in her lifetime, if she were to pass through her childbearing years experiencing the age-specific fertility rates prevailing in a given year/period, for a given country, territory, or geographic area.
  • Toxicity
    • MeSH -  Wikipedia
      The degree to which a medicine is poisonous. How much of a medicine can be taken before it has a toxic effect.
      An adverse effect produced by a drug that is detrimental to the participant's health. The level of toxicity associated with a drug will vary depending on the condition which the drug is used to treat.
      Used with drugs and chemicals for experimental human and animal studies of their ill effects. It includes studies to determine the margin of safety or the reactions accompanying administration at various dose levels. It is used also for exposure to environmental agents. Poisoning should be considered for life-threatening exposure to environmental agents.
  • Transcript
    • A verbatim written version of an interview.
  • Translational research
    • MeSH - Wikipedia
      Translational research is a way of thinking about and conducting scientific research to make the results of research applicable to the population under study and is practiced in the natural and biological, behavioral, and social sciences. In the field of medicine, for example, it is used to translate the findings in basic research more quickly and efficiently into medical practice and, thus, meaningful health outcomes, whether those are physical, mental, or social outcomes.
      Research that seeks to characterize the sequence of events through which a scientific discovery moves between basic scientists, clinical researchers, practitioners, and consumers, and to find more effective ways to facilitate this process. Translational research can be further specified by the translational phase that it addresses, phase I (basic science to human research or human research to basic science), phase II (human research to practice-based and community-based research or practice-based and community-based research to human research), or phase III (practice-based research to practice and community or practice and community to practice-based research). Phase III translational research is often further divided into dissemination research, implementation research, and diffusion research.
      The application of discoveries generated by laboratory research and preclinical studies to the development of clinical trials and studies in humans. A second area of translational research concerns enhancing the adoption of best practices.
  • Transmission
    • MeSH - Wikipedia
      In medicine, transmission is the passing of a disease from an infected individual or group to a previously uninfected individual or group.
      Used with diseases for studies of the modes of transmission.
  • Treatment
    • MeSH - Wikipedia
      The process of intervening on people with the aim of enhancing health or life expectancy. Sometimes, and particularly in statistical texts, the word is used to cover all comparison groups, including placebo and no treatment arms of a controlled trial and even interventions designed to prevent bad outcomes in healthy people, rather than cure ill people.
      Procedures concerned with the remedial treatment or prevention of diseases.
    • Also called therapeutics.
  • Treatment effect
    • Wikipedia
      An effect attributed to a treatment in a clinical trial. In most clinical trials the treatment effect of interest is a comparison (or contrast) of two or more treatments.
  • Treatment emergent
    • An event that emerges during treatment having been absent pre-treatment, or worsens relative to the pre-treatment state.
  • Treatment failure
    • MeSH
      A measure of the quality of health care by assessment of unsuccessful results of management and procedures used in combating disease, in individual cases or series.
  • Treatment IND
    • Wikipedia
      IND stands for Investigational New Drug application, which is part of the process to get approval from the FDA for marketing a new prescription drug in the U.S. It makes promising new drugs available to desperately ill participants as early in the drug development process as possible. Treatment INDs are made available to participants before general marketing begins, typically during Phase III studies. To be considered for a treatment IND a participant cannot be eligible to be in the definitive clinical trial.
  • Treatment outcome
    • MeSH
      Evaluation undertaken to assess the results or consequences of management and procedures used in combating disease in order to determine the efficacy, effectiveness, safety, practicability, etc., of these interventions in individual cases or series.
  • Treatment refusal
    • MeSH
      Patient or client refusal of or resistance to medical, psychological, or psychiatric treatment.
  • Treatment trials
    • Refers to trials which test new treatments, new combinations of drugs, or new approaches to surgery or radiation therapy.
  • Trend
    • Wikipedia
      A consistent movement across ordered categories, e.g. a change in the effect observed in studies grouped according to, for instance, intensity of treatment.
      A long-term movement or change in frequency, usually upwards or downwards.
  • Triage
    • MeSH - Wikipedia
      A process of prioritizing patients based on the severity of their condition.
      The sorting out and classification of patients or casualties to determine priority of need and proper place of treatment.
  • Trial of therapy
    • In a trial of therapy, the physician offers the patient an intervention, reviews the impact of the intervention on that patient at some subsequent time, and, depending on the impact, recommends either continuation or discontinuation of the intervention.
  • Trial site
    • The location(s) where trial-related activities are actually conducted.
  • Trial statistician
    • A statistician who has a combination of education/training and experience sufficient to implement the principles in this guidance and who is responsible for the statistical aspects of the trial.
  • Trialist
    • Used to refer to a person conducting or publishing a controlled trial.
  • Triangulation
    • Wikipedia
      More than one investigator collects and analyzes the raw data, such that the findings emerge through consensus among investigators.
      In qualitative research, an analytic approach in which key findings are corroborated using multiple sources of information.
  • Trim-and-fill method
    • When publication bias is suspected in a systematic review, investigators may attempt to estimate the true intervention effect by removing, or trimming, small positive-result studies that do not have a negative-result study counterpart and then calculating a supposed true effect from the resulting symmetric funnel plot. The investigators then replace the positive-result studies they have removed and add hypothetical studies that mirror these positive-result studies to create a symmetric funnel plot that retains the new pooled effect estimate. This method allows the calculation of an adjusted confidence interval and an estimate of the number of missing trials.
  • True negative
    • Wikipedia
      A diagnostic test correctly indicating that a person does not have the disease.
  • True positive
    • Wikipedia
      A diagnostic test correctly indicating that a person has the disease.
  • Twin study
    • MeSH - Wikipedia
      Twin studies are one of a family of designs in behavior genetics which aid the study of individual differences by highlighting the role of environmental and genetic causes on behavior.
      Methods of detecting genetic etiology in human traits. The basic premise of twin studies is that monozygotic twins, being formed by the division of a single fertilized ovum, carry identical genes, while dizygotic twins, being formed by the fertilization of two ova by two different spermatozoa, are genetically no more similar than two siblings born after separate pregnancies.
      Twin study [MeSH - publication type]: work consisting of reporting using a method of detecting genetic causes in human traits and genetic factors in behavior using sets of twins.
  • Two-tailed test
    • Wikipedia
      A statistical test where a difference between two groups is tested without reference to the expected direction of the difference, for example whether a risk factor, such as use of hormonal contraception will increase or decrease the incidence of a condition. A two-tailed test will need a larger sample size than a one-tailed test.
  • Type I error
    • Wikipedia
      A conclusion that a treatment works, when it actually does not work. The risk of a Type I error is often called alpha. In a statistical test, it describes the chance of rejecting the null hypothesis when it is in fact true. (Also called false positive.)
  • Type II error
    • Wikipedia
      A conclusion that there is no evidence that a treatment works, when it actually does work. The risk of a Type II error is often called beta. In a statistical test, it describes the chance of not rejecting the null hypothesis when it is in fact false. The risk of a Type II error decreases as the number of participants in a study increases. (Also called false negative.)