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Homeopathy 2003; 92(04): 182-186
DOI: 10.1016/j.homp.2003.08.013
Original Paper
Copyright ©The Faculty of Homeopathy 2003

Assessing likelihood ratio of clinical symptoms: handling vagueness

ALB Rutten
1   Commissie Methode en Validering VHAN (Dutch Association of Homeopathic Physicians), The Netherlands
,
CF Stolper
1   Commissie Methode en Validering VHAN (Dutch Association of Homeopathic Physicians), The Netherlands
,
RFG Lugten
1   Commissie Methode en Validering VHAN (Dutch Association of Homeopathic Physicians), The Netherlands
,
RWJM Barthels
1   Commissie Methode en Validering VHAN (Dutch Association of Homeopathic Physicians), The Netherlands
› Author Affiliations
Further Information

Publication History

Received23 April 2003
revised18 July 2003

accepted11 August 2003

Publication Date:
12 December 2017 (online)

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Abstract

Clinical symptoms including homeopathic symptoms are often vague. There is reluctance to assess clinical symptoms as diagnostic instruments because they are hard to define. Still, clinical symptoms appear effective in daily practice. Expert systems and neural networks handle vague data successfully.

Theoretical considerations predict the kind of problems we may expect. There is a difference between quantitative and qualitative vagueness. Vague data cause problems if we try to prove a hypothesis because of expectation bias. We assess likelihood ratio of homeopathic symptoms only to improve the method.

Keywords

likelihood ratio - Bayesian analysis - vagueness - clinical symptoms - Sorites paradox - ambiguity - confounding - expectation bias
 

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