In the review Article By Abebaw Jember Proportion of medication error reporting and associated factors among nurses: a cross sectional study

Proportion of medication error reporting and associated factors among nurses: a cross sectional study - PubMed (nih.gov)

• PMID: 29563855
• PMCID: PMC5848571
• DOI: 10.1186/s12912-018-0280-41

1.     Look at the results. The odds of reporting a medication error are described as AOR, or odds ratio. Why is this particular value used in this study? What does the numerical value indicate? What does the range reported in the confidence interval mean?

Adjusted odds ratio (AOR) is one that controls for several other predictor variables in a study. This gives the researcher an idea of the dynamics existing between the predictors. Multiple regression produces AORs since it works with many independent variables. Another term for AOR is conditional odds ratio. In this study, AORs are applied since the study has many other predictor variables such as past experience, marital status, etc.

"Nurses who had no medication error experience were 55.5% times more likely to report medication errors than those who had medication error experiences (AOR = 0.445; 95% CI = 0.274-0.722)."

In the above example, adjusted in relation to other predictors of errors, the odds ratio of reporting a medication error among those who had no past experience was 0.445 as compared to those who had experience. This means that those who had experience in medication error were less likely to report a medication error.

The numerator is the odds in the intervention arm while the denominator is the odds in the control or placebo group.

The confidence interval indicates the level of uncertainty around the measure of effect (precision of the effect estimate) which in this case is expressed as an Odds Ratio. Confidence intervals are used because a study recruits only a small sample of the overall population so by having an upper and lower confidence limit we can infer that the true population effect lies between these two points. Most studies report the 95% confidence interval (95%CI) and this study is no exception.

In the above example, the true odds ratio of the population lies anywhere between  0.274-0.722.