UKMLA Applied Knowledge Test (MSRA-style single best answer) · Professional Practice, Ethics, Law and Statistics

Statistics and research methods

25 practice questions, each with the answer and an explanation.

Practise Statistics and research methods now

Random questions from this topic, one at a time. You see the answer and the explanation straight after each one.

All 25 questions

  1. In a population of 1000 people, 100 have a disease. A screening test is positive in 80 of the 100 people with the disease and in 45 of the 900 people without it. What is the sensitivity of the test?
  2. In a population of 1000 people, 100 have a disease. A screening test is positive in 80 of the 100 people with the disease and in 45 of the 900 people without it. What is the specificity of the test?
  3. In a population of 1000 people, 100 have a disease. A screening test is positive in 80 of the 100 people with the disease and in 45 of the 900 people without it. What is the positive predictive value…
  4. In a population of 1000 people, 100 have a disease. A screening test is positive in 80 of the 100 people with the disease and in 45 of the 900 people without it. What is the positive likelihood ratio…
  5. A patient has a pre-test probability of disease of 10 percent. A test with a positive likelihood ratio of 16 is positive. What is the approximate post-test probability?
  6. In a trial, 20 percent of the control group and 15 percent of the treatment group have a stroke over five years. What is the number needed to treat to prevent one stroke?
  7. Using the same trial, in which 20 percent of the controls and 15 percent of the treated patients have a stroke, what is the relative risk reduction?
  8. A case-control study finds that 40 of 60 cases and 20 of 60 controls were exposed to a factor. What is the odds ratio?
  9. Which study design is most suitable for investigating the cause of a very rare disease?
  10. A screening programme reports longer survival from diagnosis in screened patients, but there is no difference in mortality. Which bias explains this?
  11. A trial reports a p-value of 0.03 for the effect of a drug. What is the correct interpretation?
  12. A trial reports a relative risk of 0.80 with a 95 percent confidence interval of 0.60 to 1.10. How should this be interpreted?
  13. What is a type II error?
  14. Systolic blood pressure in a population is normally distributed with mean 120 mmHg and standard deviation 10 mmHg. Between which values do about 95 percent of people lie?
  15. In a positively skewed distribution such as length of hospital stay, which statement is correct?
  16. A sample of 100 patients has a standard deviation of 20 for a measurement. What is the standard error of the mean?
  17. A researcher wants to compare the proportion of smokers in two independent groups. Which test is most appropriate?
  18. In a randomised trial, some patients assigned to surgery receive medical therapy instead. Which analysis keeps the benefit of randomisation?
  19. Which of these sits at the top of the hierarchy of evidence for a treatment question?
  20. In a town of 10,000 people, 50 new cases of a disease are diagnosed during one year. What is the incidence?
  21. A study shows that coffee drinkers have more lung cancer, but the coffee drinkers are more often smokers. What is smoking in this context?
  22. A funnel plot in a meta-analysis shows asymmetry, with small negative studies missing. What does this suggest?
  23. A trial reports a hazard ratio of 0.70 for death with a new treatment. What does this mean?
  24. What distinguishes clinical audit from research?
  25. What is the main purpose of random allocation in a clinical trial?

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