How do you call an outcome if you have multiple endpoints to investigate it?

Question

Hello,
When you want to investigate exacerbations (outcome of interest) in asthma, you can measure:
1) the incidence rate in the last year (i.e. mean numbers of exacerbations in the last year in your total population);
2) the frequency of patients reporting one exacerbation in the last year;
3) the time-to-1st-exacerbation within the last year.
So you have 3 different endpoints to explore the same outcome.
Could you please help me in finding the technical term to define this property of the outcome? E.g. Multiple outcome, multivariate outcome, multi-faceted, multivalent, manifold...
Thank you!
Matteo

Ashish D · Answer

Composite Outcome

Akhilesh Kumar · Answer

Hi
The technical term for the same is called 'composite outcome' and while using them in any study, adequately addressing all composite outcomes reasonably will increase the statistical efficiency.

Oleksii Korzh · Answer

Composite endpoints combine multiple individual outcomes into a single measure. This is often done to capture a broader picture of the overall treatment effect.

Professor/Sherif Mohamed · Answer

I totally agree with the comment of Dr Victor

Dr Victor · Answer

In the context of clinical research, when you have multiple endpoints to investigate a single outcome, such as exacerbations in asthma, the term often used is "composite endpoint" or "composite outcome." This term is used when multiple individual endpoints are combined into a single, aggregated measure to capture the overall effect on a clinical condition.

However, in your specific case, you are not combining these endpoints into a single measure but rather examining the same outcome (exacerbations in asthma) through different lenses or dimensions. This approach could be described as a "multi-dimensional" or "multi-faceted" analysis of the outcome. Each of the endpoints you mentioned (incidence rate, frequency of patients reporting, and time-to-first-exacerbation) provides a different perspective on the same clinical issue, offering a more comprehensive understanding of the outcome.

So, while "composite endpoint" is a term for combined measures, "multi-dimensional" or "multi-faceted outcome analysis" might be more appropriate for your scenario, where multiple separate endpoints are used to investigate different aspects of the same outcome.

How do you call an outcome if you have multiple endpoints to investigate it?

Oleksii Korzh

Akhilesh Kumar

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Ashish D

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How do you call an outcome if you have multiple endpoints to investigate it?

Oleksii Korzh

Akhilesh Kumar

Professor/Sherif Mohamed

Ashish D

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