Resource Library
 |
Powered by Dorland's Medical Dictionary for Healthcare Consumers |
|||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
value (valŽu) a measure of worth or efficiency. a quantitative measurement of the activity, concentration, or some other quality of something. biological value
the quality of a protein expressed on a scale of 1 to 100; the higher the number the better the quality. normal values
the range in concentration of specific substances found in normal healthy tissues, secretions, and so on. P value
, p value
the probability of obtaining by chance a result at least as extreme as that observed, even when the null hypothesis is true
and no real difference exists; when P ≤ 0.05 the sample results are usually deemed significant at a statistically important level and the null hypothesis rejected.
See also Type I error. reference values
a set of values of a quantity measured in the clinical laboratory that characterize a specified population in a defined state
of health. The values obtained from a statistical sample are used to establish a reference interval that covers 95 per cent of the values of the healthy general population or of specific subpopulations differing in age and
sex. These concepts were originally and are still widely referred to as “normal values” and the “normal range,” but the use
of these terms is now discouraged because of their implication that values falling outside of the reference interval are “abnormal”
or “unhealthy,” which has led to much confusion. It must be remembered that, by definition, 5 per cent of healthy individuals
fall outside of the reference interval.
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
