Exploratory Factor Analysis
Exploratory factor analysis is a latent-variable method that examines whether correlations among observed variables can be represented by a smaller, initially unspecified set of common factors.
Encyclopaedia
Explore comprehensive, evidence-informed explanations of key health economics concepts, including their development, application and relationships to other concepts. Published entries are validated through human expert review.
Concepts, entries and ontology terms
A concept page is a published entry on the wiki. Some concepts also have a full encyclopaedia article. The Health Economics Ontology (HEO) holds every concept, including dictionary terms without an article, so it is larger than the list of published pages. The knowledge graph shows how concepts relate to each other.
F-Distribution
The F distribution describes the ratio of two independent variance estimates and underlies F tests on cost and outcome regressions in health economics.
FACT-G
FACT-G is a 27-item cancer quality of life questionnaire used as a trial outcome, whose scores need mapping or the FACT-8D before they can inform QALYs.
Factor Analysis
Factor analysis explains correlations among observed variables using a smaller number of unobserved latent factors.
Factor Loading
A factor loading is a model-estimated coefficient that relates an observed variable to a latent factor under a specified factor-analytic measurement model.
Factor Rotation
Factor rotation transforms an extracted factor solution to make its loading pattern easier to interpret while preserving the model-implied common covariance under an equivalent transformation.
Factorial Design
Factorial design is a trial design randomising people to combinations of two or more treatments, so one trial estimates each effect and any interaction.
Feasibility Assessment
An evaluation of whether a proposed study or intervention can practically be conducted given available resources, infrastructure, and population characteristics.
Fieller Method
The Fieller method calculates a confidence interval for a ratio such as the ICER, allowing for joint uncertainty in the cost and effect differences.
Finite Mixture Model
A finite mixture model treats data such as patient costs or utilities as coming from a fixed number of hidden subgroups, each with its own distribution.
Fixed Effect Model
A meta-analysis model assuming all included studies estimate the same true effect, with observed variation attributed entirely to sampling error.
Fixed Effects
Fixed effects are unit-specific terms in panel data regression that remove bias from stable unmeasured traits of patients, hospitals or areas.
FLACC Scale
FLACC Scale is an observer-rated pain score for young or non-verbal children, totalling 0 to 10, used as a trial outcome but unable to give QALYs directly.
Focus Group
A focus group is a moderated small-group discussion used in health research and economic evaluation to explore people's views through their interaction.
Frequentist Analysis
Frequentist analysis judges estimates, tests and confidence intervals by their behaviour over repeated samples, as in trial-based economic evaluation.
Frequentist Meta-Analysis
An approach combining evidence using classical frequentist methods, producing a point estimate and confidence interval without formally incorporating prior beliefs.
Futility Analysis
A futility analysis assesses interim trial evidence against a prespecified rule to judge whether continuing is sufficiently likely to meet the study's final objective.
GAD-7
GAD-7 is a seven-item self-report scale scoring generalised anxiety symptoms 0 to 21, used as an outcome in mental health trials and economic evaluations.
Generalized Estimating Equations
Generalized estimating equations are a regression approach for estimating population-averaged associations from correlated observations by specifying a marginal mean model and accounting for within-cluster dependence.
Generalized Linear Model
A generalised linear model (GLM) relates an outcome's mean to covariates via a link function, used in health economics for skewed costs and counts.