Question

What does NNTB (Number Needed to Benefit) signify?

a) The number of people who experienced adverse effects from treatment
b) The number of people required to receive treatment to prevent one additional bad outcome
c) The number of people needed to undergo a specific intervention to achieve a positive result
d) The number of people affected by a particular illness or condition

Answer 1

NNTB stands for Number Needed to Benefit and represents the number of individuals who need to receive a treatment to prevent one additional negative outcome such as the development of a disease.

Step-by-step explanation:

The term NNTB (Number Needed to Benefit) signifies the number of people needed to undergo a specific intervention to achieve a positive result. In the context of a new preventative medication being tested, NNTB is calculated to determine how many patients need to receive the treatment to prevent one additional person from developing the disease. For instance, when comparing a treatment group with a control group, one can use the incidences of the disease development in both groups to calculate the NNTB.

To calculate the NNTB in the provided scenario, you would first find the absolute risk reduction (ARR), which is the difference in the rates of the bad outcome among the control group (68 out of 224) and the treatment group (45 out of 224). Then, you would take the inverse of this difference to find the NNTB. It represents the effectiveness of a treatment and helps to inform decisions in clinical practice.